Photos for my Movie Poster & Double Page Spread

Double Page Spread

Before commencing my double page spread, I wanted to give myself a grid layout as this would navigate me to put all the features in the right order and aligned in a column layout. This worked out for me best as it gave me enough columns to have a few text boxes and images to fill the double page. I got this grid layout by going into "View" and then it said "New Guide Layout" in then I selected 5 columns and 2 rows. 

The Significance Of Time

Time, dates & deadlines and how they have impacted me and the creation of my short film.

Time, dates and deadlines are very important in my short film. A psychological short film which has a countdown of when a character will die is fairly vague to the viewers. This is because you can see the protagonist (Zara Teller) is counting down for something but it is not made clear up till the death of the antagonist (Ivy Allen). 

Furthermore, time is an important area which has impacted me when creating this short film. This is because it still makes me personally excited/scared/nervous when I watch a film with a climatic ending coming up. As time and dates are almost a marker to an event. In this case, Ivy Allen's death is the upcoming event. This is the most disturbing aspect of the film as it appears that Zara has a thrill for this to happen. Overall this highlights Zara's psychological abnormal thoughts. - it is represented through crossing the days off her calendar and these rituals for her murdering Ivy. 

Overall, the ways Zara Teller's character does this is by, counting down days on a calendar, looking at a watch and time on hand and phone alerting the event.

Impact on the audience

The audience watching the film then having a huge impact on them is important for me. This is because I want the film to dwell on them and they question multiple aspects of the film. For example, they take a frame and they pick the messages apart and let the camera shots, editing, sound and mise en scene to give them multiple messages about the characters. I believe it is about what the audience takes from it and how they put the short film into their own thoughts.

Editing Audio

To improve my voice over audio and the quality, I used the "Hum Reduction" to smoothen my audio out. This took away background noise, improved the quality of the audio and the small details which I didn't want are now gone. I have used Hum Reduction on all of my audio to ensure the voiceover was good quality. 

Symbolisation of Chiaroscuro

In my short film, I wanted to use the lighting technique Chiaroscuro for multiple reasons. 

Firstly, in my film there is a clear division between external beauty and unattractiveness. This is represented through many things. I wanted to convey this through camera shots, sound, editing and Mise en scene. Regarding this message I want to highlight, I thought I could interpret these feelings through many more things. 

One of the many reasons I am using Chiaroscuro is because its a metaphoric sign of beauty and ghastliness. This is because the beauty lights things up and can be appeared to be heavenly. The opposite to this, is the darkness and how it signals an ugly twisted exterior. Furthermore, this is not all what is being implied. In my short film, I am implying these bitter characteristics through exterior and interior; hence the choice of using a voiceover (this will express Zara's thoughts very quickly). 

However, the Chiaroscuro is split in half, as the object in the frame is 50% lit and 50% dark. This may be a symbol of how they both should be equal but overall the lit part of the object will always draw more attention. The dark proportion is hiding something and therefore us viewers will not know what is hiding beneath.

There seems to be a clear fascination in the mysterious wicked things in life and I myself find it hard not to want to know more when it comes to disturbing events. I feel as if we all want to know whats hiding when it comes to these disturbing occurrences. e.g. psychopaths.

Conrad's vision is so dark that we're not even sure he fully trusts light. As Marlow says, "sunlight can be made to lie, too".  This was said by a film lighting producer who was inspired by Chiaroscuro for a film.

This portrays how in my short film the "lit" character may not evidently appear how she has been made out to be by her appearance. The character Zara doesn't fail to point out Ivy's many flaws (as obscure as they seem).

Slow Motion Frame

For one of my frames, I am using a record player and thought it would look rather effective as slow motion. This makes it not a fast frame and is more of a calm smoother one. Faster looks a bit more messy. I also stabilised the footage. I put the slow motion on 50% to make it as calm as possible - I wanted the slow motion to be very clear.

Testing out Lighting -Chiaroscuro Lighting Techniques

The lighting technique - Chiaroscuro has been experimented here. I placed the smoking pot on the ground and firstly was navigating where certain things in the frame was going. I wanted the pot to be slightly in front of the wall and it was dark. I then got a LED light and placed it on the right side of the object.

I experimented with relocating the object and pointing the light at a different angle. However, I preferred with the LED light being lower down and making sure exactly half of the pot is lit and dark. 

Notes on "High by the beach"

This song being hazy and having a intense beat really fits her carefree vocals. The soundtrack being quite laid-back and mesmerising is due to the percussion adding enough pop into the track to make it the melody it is. It seems to have an unbothered vibe to the track. The two themes that are addressed are a relationship that’s become another problem and a carefree attitude towards her fame - this has been successfully presented as a visual message. As well as all of this it also has a hypnotising hook. The song is very eery and overall has a dark and mysterious tone. 

I believe this would be a successful choice to have as non-diegetic music for my film as it is a never ending journey of mystery and negative connotations. 

I believe this song will be a successful choice of music to have for my film; this is for multiple reasons. Firstly, the song starts off with a hollow sound and sounds like extreme emotion. The words also interconnect with what I am trying to portray in my film.

"Now you're just another one of my problems
Because you got out of hand"

Overall, the song portrays all the messages I wanted the song to and is successfully conveying the vibes and tones of what the film will be.

Voice over & Music

For my short film, I have put my voice over and music on. Obviously, when the parts of the film where the voice over is, I have split the music clip where there is a voice over segment and made the music to 6% on the volume. 
When the voiceover disappears I have made the music slightly louder as that will be the main audio for that small part of the film. I put this on 17%. The voiceover is always 40% as I don't want the music in the background to be completely neglected.

Evidence of requesting Disney music for credits of short film

Short Film Music

I emailed Lana Del Rey's managing team to ask for permission of her song "High by the beach".

Blocking

Living Room Area - Homely but adds to the mysterious reason as to why Zara is abnormal.

Girl's bedroom. Ivy laying in bed with minimal surroundings. All white & light (heavenly).

Alley Way -  Long, Narrow.

River. Open and light - but will be made to look darker using black and whit effect on camera.

Suburban road. Quite, normal looking neighbourhood.