Beginning of editing

HELLO EDITING

Although we only have a small portion of our opening filmed we have already started editing. I am using Clipchamp to edit our opening! The only things I have added so far has been two clips. It is the clip of the car crashing before the screen goes black. There is also a clip slowly zooming out of "Sarah" showing her beat up and severely injured from the crash. What I have done so far is the sounds that I have added. So far in the clip of the car swerving off of the road I have only 3 sounds layered as of now. I might add more but I don't know what sounds would go there so I am figuring out the best way to do it. I don't want the actual sound of the "crash" to be until the screen is just black. For the clip of the car that we have already I added the sound of tires screeching, the sound of a car on a rocky road, and the sound of car breaks being hit. All of these sounds are from Pixabay!!

In the other clip that I have of the zoom out of Sarah showing her injuries I layered in the sound of police sirens and ambulance sirens. These sounds combined is supposed to show the audience that she is very hurt and most likely dead. They will then find out later in the opening but this is a good hint to show it. We have had a hard time scheduling film days but tomorrow evening both of my group members are for sure coming to my house to finish all of our scenes. We have to film the dialogue in the car before the crash which is being filmed on the same road that we filmed the crash. We are also filming the room scene of showing Adams room and establishing his character development. 

 

PRODUCTION- DAY 1 

Hello! Last night we finally started filming!! We filmed the crash scene. We used a very empty road to do this. While my group and I met up last night we brought our storyboard and we realized we were missing a few things. But don't fear! We figured it out! We realized that if we wanted to film a two shot of the 2 characters Adam and Sarah in the car we need something to stick it to the car. My 2 group members are the actors and I am the one filming. We tried many things and put the phone in many different places in the car, I even tried to crouch in front of the driver to put the camera in front of them and it just wasn't working. What we decided to do is we went online and ordered a phone holder for your car. This is going to be very helpful for the project. It came with a suction cup that we can use to stick the phone to the windshield and any of the windows which is perfect for what we needed! This is coming today and we are filming that scene tonight. 

Now let's talk about what we DID film last night. We did go off of the storyboard a little because while we were filming we realized we can do different better things then what we had down. We filmed the car crash scene. The way that we filmed this was we had one of my group members parked on the side of an empty road with her headlights on facing the front of the car that we were filming in. Then I went in the back set of the main characters car and filmed a shot showing the windshield and the back of the 2 front seats that my group members were sitting in. 

We then drove near the parked car and swerved away from it. This clip that we filmed is only going to be shown once the car is close to the parked car with its lights on so you can not tell that the car is not moving. In the editing process I am going to be editing that clip and cutting off the beginning. 

Another thing that we did do was show the character of Sarah after the crash. I used all of the makeup that I have been practicing for and put it all over her arms, face, and neck. I added blood splatters, open wounds, and bruises. I think it ended up looking really good! She then laid on the side of the road which then I did a slow zoom out starting at the big wound on her head to showing her entire body laying. 

Here is a picture of me doing the character of "Sarahs" makeup!!

Production Plan

 

Production Update

This week we were supposed to start filming our project. My group was not able to all get together to film. We changed our schedule that this upcoming week on Tuesday and Thursday we are going to film. On Tuesday night my two group members are coming to my house and we are going to film the bedroom scene of the opening. We are filming it in my brothers bedroom since it is very plain and the sheets are very simple with a lot of empty space. The way that my group is going to "prep" the room is we are going to make it very messy with many different things. We are going to make the floor covered in clothes and put many cups and food wrappers to show that Adam has completely changed. We are also going to take off the decorations that my brother has in his room to portray the feeling of emptiness that Adam feels caused by Sarahs death. 

On Thursday we are going to film the car scene and the accident scene. By Thursday we will have all of our filming done and can move onto editing. For the car scene we were not able to find a way to use a drone so instead of starting with a drone shot we are going to do a long shot of the car driving away from where the camera is going to be. 

Although at the moment we are behind on filming I am glad that we have a schedule for this week and it will 100% be accomplished. Another thing that me and my group are making is a fake newspaper discussing the year anniversary of Sarahs death and establishing to the audience that whoever hit Sarah and Adams car fled. 

This is the rough draft of the newspaper that I made on Canva. Me and my group still need to add more information and figure out what picture we want to use in the middle.

I created a fake name for the newspaper company called "The One"

This is a picture of my brothers room. We are going to move the couch out of the room, take down the picture over the bed, and take out the dog cage. We want to move anything that is not necessary to Adams character that we are trying to portray. 

This week is going to be a big week of filming for my group and I but we are ready to take on the task and I am excited to bring our opening to life!

Special Effects Makeup

Hello! Today I am going to be discussing the special effects makeup for my project. In my opening we are using makeup to show Sarah when she is dead after the car accident. Throughout this week I have been practicing how to do the special effects makeup so when I film that part of the opening I already know how to make it look the best!

I was playing around and testing the makeup on my family and friends. I tried to create different looks like scars, bruises, open wounds, and splattered blood.  I used a horror makeup kit to do so. To create the look of the bruises I mixed purple and a little bit of green and yellow face paint and bloated it on with a sponge blender. The colors all put together created a really realistic bruise like wound. For the scars I used a scar wax which I then made many lines and tried to blend it into there skin and then I went down the middle of the "scar" and made a slit. For the open wounds I had this blood gel that I then took a q-tip and would first make a light line for where I wanted the wound to be. I then put the q-tip back into the gel and kept it very thick and applied it on top of the thin line of the gel. 

Then another one that I made to create a splatter effect of the blood like a road rash from the car accident. I had this net like sponge that I dipped into the blood gel and then I lightly tapped it against the skin. Another way that I did this was I took an old eyebrow brush that I had and also dipped that into the blood gel and did the same process. I played around with all of this makeup for hours and I think that I nailed the perfect way to do it for when my group and I film the parts with the makeup. After putting all of the different techniques together I feel very ready to take on doing my "dead" makeup for the opening!! 

                                    Here is one of the bruises that I tried on my friends arm. 

         This is the first scar look that I tried on my mom, I thought that I can do better to improve it.

I then added blood splatters and some more purple color and loved how it turned out!

Here is some of the bruised/road rash look I tried on my mom.

This is my dad after I put all of my skills that I learned throughout all of the tests and put it together and put it out on my dads neck and face. This is very similar to what I am going to be doing for the character of Sarah except it is going to be all over her body not just her face and neck. 

 Logo

My group is using Adobe Express to create our logo. We created our logo with many different things. Our name of the company is "ACK Media" which is all of the first initials of everyone in my group, Addison, Chase, and Kamila. The reason we chose this rather than something else is because we want it to represent how this opening is a combination of all three of our hard work and ideas put together. 

We played around for a while with different shapes, colors, and fonts but we FINALLY found the perfect logo for our production company! We decided to use the font liberation serif on Adobe Express for the words which say "A.C.K MEDIA." We then first tried to add a square shape behind the text but we thought we can do better. Then we tried to add a circle behind the text which we thought made it very visually appealing. 

We felt that just with the circle and the words it was a bit too plain so we added another shape just going over the words, we all really liked how this looked. We played around with different colors and designs for this smaller circle but we decided white was the best way to go. We then tried to look at different graphics we can add it to make it more interesting to look at. We tried one at the bottom which we thought that we liked but after a while of looking at it it felt unnecessary to add. 

At this point the bigger circle was blue and the smaller one was white and the text was black. We felt that this didn't match with the creepy aesthetic of our opening. We decided to change it to the big circle being red which would represent violence and death since our production company would mainly make horror films. The smaller circle is black and the words are also a very dark red. The circle is also outlined with thick black. 

Here is our final product of our logo!

Formatting/order of our credits

Credits

Today I am going to be discussing how the credits of my opening is going to go. The credits will be put towards the end of the opening. As the survivor of the crash Adam wakes up on the year anniversary of the crash we are going to be filming a very slow zoom out long shot of his bedroom. During this shot the character, Adam will be getting ready for the day as the camera looks all around the room. In the room you will see a significant change his character. When different objects of the room are highlighted credits are going to appear. The room is going to be very messy, colorless, and will show a fake newspaper that me and my group are going to make that is going to show the headline of " Almost a year later justice has still not been served for Sarah Walker that was killed in a car crash last year. The search for the drunk driver still continues. 

Another thing that is going to be shown is a board that me and my group are going to make which is Adams research to find and kill the drunk driver. 

Font and color

The font that we are going to use for the credits are the "Pluto" font from ClipChamp. The reason that we decided to choose this font is because it is a very straight, bold and serious font. We want the font to represent the themes that are happening within the opening. 

The color that the credits are going to be in is white, as more credits are added the color is going to slowly turn red. The reason that we chose it to start as white is to symbolize the innocence at the beginning of the opening of the couple and how happy they were before the crash. The slow change of red represents the big impact that the crash made on Adam's life by loosing his girlfriend Sarah. It shows his slow mental decline and how much the loss of his girlfriend affected him and how he is going crazy and how he is planning on committing murder of the person that hit them in the crash. 

   Here is an example of the font that we are using for the credits on ClipChamp which is                                      the app we are using to add the text to our opening

Sound

An example of a copy right free source. (n.d.). Sound effects. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/

Sound

Many different forms of sound are going to be used within the opening. We are also going to have to create many foley sounds throughout it. One of the foley sounds we are going to try and have is the ambulance sound which is going to be played after the crash. We are going to constantly be on the watch while out to capture the sound of an ambulance which we can put into our project. 

At the beginning of the project when the 2 characters are listening to music we are going to play a copy right free “feel good” song that the characters will be having a good time to. Right as the opening starts we might play the sound of the two characters talking in the background as the shot is a drone shot of the car driving on a rode. Also at the start there is going to be many background noises of happy noises like birds chirping, trees blowing in the wind, airplanes, other car noises, and more.

All of the sounds are going to be made by me and my group and then added into the opening during the editing process. If we have audios that we can not figure out how to make me will use a copy right free source that has a lot of different sounds that we can layer in. 

When the opening shifts from the crash to the “year later” The sound of the alarm is going to be emphasized and the only thing that you can hear. As the wall of plan for the nurses appears we will add over nondiagetic creepy music to onto the energy change. 

Mise-en-scene- Setting

 Mise-n-scene 

  Setting - 

Today I am going to be discussing the setting and the role that it is going to play in my opening. At the start the setting is going to be an empty street with a lot of green trees surrounding the road. The lighting is also going to very bright and its going to be very sunny. This is going to represent the happiness of the connection between the 2 characters and how well everything is going. The sun shining and the very blue skies are going to be shown. 

Now after the crash is when the setting is going to fully change. The characters room is going to be very different than the sunny skies at the beginning. The room is going to be very dark with lots of browns and black colors in it. It also going to be very messy like clothes all over the ground showing the decline of the characters mental health since the crash. The lighting in the bedroom is going to contrast the bright lighting at the beginning and it is going to be very dark and gloomy. The bed is going to have very simple sheets on it with one or two pillows emphasizing the emptiness. 

The use of the settings is going to really help bring out the difference between before the car accident and after it. 

This is very similar to the idea and shot that we want to use at the beginning of our opening 

 

Kozlik. (n.d.). Aerial drone shot: Camera following car driving [Video]. Shutterstock. https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1061712187-aerial-drone-shot-camera-following-car-driving

Here is an idea of what we want the room to look like as the second setting of the opening

doidam10. (n.d.). Messy white bed and one pillow, wooden wall in the morning [Photograph]. Freepik. https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/messy-white-bed-one-pillow-wooden-wall-morning_1566941.htm

Mise-en-scene - Costume

 

Mise-en-scene 

Costume design -

Mis-en-scene is going to play a huge part in my groups opening which is going to help emphasize the switch between before the crash and after it. 

Before the crash we want to use costumes that give off the feeling of  "life". For the passenger we want them to be wearing a very distinct colorful outfit. Maybe something like a pattern or a very bright color that will stand out. We also want her to be wearing very light pink makeup and lipgloss to emphasize the character and personality she had before her death. For the driver they are also going to be wearing a bright color to show the happiness that they feel before the tragedy occurs. 

After the crash the costume design is completely going to change for the driver. He is going to be wearing very dull boring clothes symbolizing that he lost the “spark” in his life. The girl is going to keep on the same outfit that she had on when the crash occurred but we are going to use lighting to make it not as bright showing how she lost her life. 

-An example of a type of outfit we might use for the girl at the beginning 

David Cline Online. (n.d.). Crushed bright shirt. Retrieved February 13, 2026, from https://davidclineonline.com/products/crushed-bright-shirt

 

Character Development -

My group and I were discussing our original idea and we realized there is not enough plot or development. We came up with a new idea which I think we have the opportunity to do way more with and can end up being so much better! Here is a quick summary of our new opening before I get into the character development. 

It is going to start off as two people in a car who clearly have a close relationship, then the driver is going to say something along the lines of "what is this car doing." Then they will crash and the passenger will die. We are going to do a transition to a year later where the drivers alarm goes off to wake up. It will be the year anniversary of the passengers death. The driver will then get ready and he will see the dead passenger as he is going crazy and she will constantly be seen every time there is a mirror. As the camera pans to a wall where he is plotting to kill the drunk driver that killed the passenger in their car crash. 

Now let's get into the character development. At the beginning the driver is going to be very happy and bright. The crash is going to completely change this. After the crash the driver is going to be very lifeless and dull. We want to make it as in the past year he has gone crazy and is a completely different person than before. His change will be expressed through dialogue, the tone of their voice, their clothes, and we will be using makeup to add things like eye bags to add to the effect that he is going crazy. 

Now for the character development of the passenger. The passenger is going to be very bubbly and full of life. We are going to have the passenger in a very distinct, bright outfit. After the crash as the passenger is dead she is not going to have any emotions other than dull. She is going to have little dialogue after her death as she is not actually there but the driver sees her. Her personality is going to change to very serious and her face is not going to be showing any emotions. 

The concept of the passenger being dead is similar to in 13 Reasons Why how Clay sees Hannah Baker after her death.

Gill, J. (2018, May 8). 13 Reasons Why season 2 Netflix 1st FULL trailer: Clay’s on the edge, Bryce in the dock in new footage. Radio Times. https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/13-reasons-why-season-2-netflix-trailer-watch-clay-bryce/

Storyboard

 

Storyboard

Let's jump right into my project! Me and my group have created a storyboard for the way that we are filming our opening. We are very excited to be able to put our thoughts into real life and create this project. We even are burrowing a drone to enhance some of the shots in our opening!

Here is our storyboard!

Page1. 

Page 2.

 Page 3. 

Summary Of Opening

  

MY PROJECT

Summary - 

After thinking long and hard about the film opening I have finally decided the way I want to go about it. The film opening I am creating is a phycological horror. The plot is about a person who accidentally kills someone who is very close to them in a car crash. The drivers guilt from texting and driving is so strong that they feel as if they have woken up in the person they killed body. This opening explores a lot of feeling of guilt and not being able to change the past. It starts off very happy and quickly drastically changes. 

An inspiration for this film is the film "Black Swan." The goal of this opening is to really portray the feeling of how guilt can take over someone. This opening is going to leave a lot of interpretation up to the audience and how they view it. It ends as the driver wakes up and looks in the mirror to see that they are in the victims body. This is also a type of fantasy as its up to the audience if the bodies really switched, it is all in the persons head, or it is haunted. If this film were to go on this would explore all of these type of questions but as for the opening, it leaves the viewers with many questions. That is exactly what me and my group are going for. 

                                               Black Swan 2010

Citations -

Octavio CG. (2019, September 2). Black Swan (2010). Vinyl Writers. https://vinylwriters.com/black-swan-2010/

Media Theory

- Enigma Code

After learning about media theories in class I have been thinking about which one I want to use in my project. I wish to use Enigma Code within my opening. 

Enigma Code was created by Roland Barthes. It creates a sense of mystery to engage the audience and make them continue watching the film. This theory is usually used in the horror genre or in a mystery. The way that Enigma code is shown can be from unknown information, solving puzzles, secrets, or really anything that is revealing something new to the audience or the characters. A movie that uses Enigma Code would be "Memento" this film constantly has the audience guessing what is happening? This film being created in 2000 is a story about a man with amnesia who uses clues to try and find out who murdered his wife. 

Constantly throughout the movie clues are being used like notes, pictures, and more to find out more information about his wife's killer. This is an example of the Enigma Code because information is always being held from the audience and characters throughout the entire film. It constantly has plot twists and the feeling of mystery which causes the audience to be so engaged with the film. 

Memento 2000

Citations- 

Memento (film). (2024, May 15). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Memento_(film)&oldid=1224016666

Salitri, A. (2023, May 25). Unraveling the enigma: The hidden meaning of the movie Memento. Medium. https://medium.com/@atharvasalitriwrites/unraveling-the-enigma-the-hidden-meaning-of-the-movie-memento-474a6bf81936

Study Rocket. (n.d.). Media language: Use of action and enigma codes (Barthes). https://studyrocket.co.uk/revision/a-level-media-studies-eduqas/media-language/use-of-action-and-enigma-codes-barthes

Media Studies. (n.d.). Action and enigma codes in narratives. https://media-studies.com/action-enigma-codes/

Group Meeting #1

 

Group Meeting #1

Reflection -

This week I had my first group meeting for the project. It went very well and was very interesting to hear my classmates ideas. I was in a group with 6 other people. 

One of my group members, Madison's idea is to be about 2 sisters who have overtime grown apart. She wants one of the sisters to be reflecting on her and her sisters memories as the audience can clearly see they are no longer nearly as close as they used to be. She said that the two actors are going to be her playing the older sister and her best friends sister as the little sister. One of the questions that me and other people in our group asked her was how is the audience going to be able to tell that they no longer are close. Madison said that the reason that they split will be found throughout the film and that the point of the opening is to be able to get the audience to wonder the reason of their distance. I think that this is a good idea because it can leave interpretation open to the audience of the reason of the split between the two sisters. 

Another one of my classmates Alejandro has an idea that is inspired by Fast and Furious. This opening is an action, comedy. It is going to be about a street race with him and his group mates as the actors. He said that each of his group members are bringing in cars to use in the race. The costumes of one of the actors is going to be a suit to show that he is high class and has a lot of money while the other two characters who are actually going to be racing are going to be wearing streetwear. I think this is a very interesting idea but I do think that it might be difficult to execute a car race. They have to make sure to use a lot of different angles and shots to keep the audience engaged. 

Jacobs idea is a sports drama opening. He stated that his opening is majorly inspired by Rocky. It is going to be about a boxer who is hurt and training to recover. As he is recovering the opening is going to be flashing back to when his injury occured. A question that was asked was how he is going to show the character getting hurt. He said that it is going to be in a boxing ring and every time the opening flashes back it is going to be him with more and more injuries on his body. I think this is a strong idea but he needs to make sure that it doesn't get confusing between the flashbacks and the new clips of him recovering.  

Olivers idea is an action opening. It is about 2 characters in a dark parking lot making some sort of "deal"
that he has not fully come up the idea yet. As the deal goes on the characters are going to get into an argument. The argument then turns to get physical and fighting begins. In my opinion this is a good start to the idea but it needs to go more into depth. I believe that this idea has a lot of potential.

Kiarmarys idea is also similar to the last one as it starts off with 2 people doing an exchange. The setting is in a diner which they are going to find a local diner to film at which I think will enhance the opening being filmed at a real diner. The characters are the main character being a spy with a high ego and the other character being very dangerous. I really like this idea and enjoy how it is put together. 

Ale,s idea is about a post apocalyptic world. I like how this opening is very different and unique. She said the she is not sure about what the "monster" is going to be but she said its going to be about 2 friends trying to survive after an apocalypse of some third world creature. Something I think she needs to be considerate about is how she is going to establish that the world just went through an apocalypse. I also think that it will be interesting to see how she creates the monsters. 

Prop and Setting -In horror

 CREATING THE CREEPINESS OF HORROR

So many things go into a horror film from the costume design, the effects, and the prop and set design. Today we are going to be discussing the props and settings in horror films. 

                                                               Prop

A very important way to fulfill the vibes that the film wants to portray to its audiences is by props. While creating these films there is a team just dedicated to taking care of the props. Some props become very important things throughout the movie for example in "IT" the red balloon is a sign that the clown, Pennywise is coming and something bad is about to happen. Another prop that has become well known is the mask in every movie of the "Scream" franchise. The mask has been the same one used in all 7 of the movies. These things have overtime become symbols of horror. 

Setting

A typical setting for horror genre is somewhere that is isolated and dark. The setting of a film establishes the feel of the entire movie. An example of a movie that has this setting is "The Shining", the movie is set in an isolated large hotel that the only people staying in it are the Torrance family. The hotel being far away from any other life creates a feeling of being alone and that if something happens they could not be saved. The fact that the hotel is very big and most of it is empty besides where the family is also adds to the creepiness of this film. It creates a feeling that there is a lot of space for others to be hiding in. Adding these aspects to film elevate the potential of expressing the feel of horror for the audience. 

                 

TIPS FOR MY PROJECT

From researching so much about horror films these past few weeks I have learned a lot. With my project I want to emphasize the horror feel by making the setting of the main characters home very creepy. I want the room to be very dull with very little color. I also want the room to feel almost empty besides the bed and the person, establishing the lifeless personality of the protagonist. 

Citations - 

Maio, A. (2019, September 5). What is the meaning of the IT red balloon? No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/it-red-balloon-meaning

Botes, Z. (2022, April 12). How Scream’s mask was inspired by 1930s cartoons (not that Munch painting). Cracked. https://www.cracked.com/article_33418_how-screams-mask-was-inspired-by-1930s-cartoons-not-that-munch-painting.html

Taborska, A. (2024, October 8). The role of setting in horror films: An in-depth analysis. Raindance. https://raindance.org/the-role-of-setting-in-horror-films-an-in-depth-analysis/

Leighton, S. (2020, May 27). The Shining: The mystery behind the real life Overlook Hotel in Oregon. 1428 Elm. https://1428elm.com/2020/05/27/the-shining-mystery-overlook-oregon/