3/24

How are we gonna make everyone seem crazy???
ive hit a road bump with this one...
we could either have everyone running towards her, or walking towards her appearing everywhere she goes, the only problem with this is that since it is spring break alot of people are out of town and we most likely wont be able to gather up that many people.

Another idea ive been thinking of is having everyone whisper creepy things to her, or unrecognizable things like in bird box. this scene was particularly interesting, and itd be cool to take inspiration from because of the creepiness in it.

or maybe even we could do something like the purge where everyone is wearing an identical mask, yet that would be also hard to do because of budget

i think the easiest thing we could do would be the whispering and i think we should go that route, but i also want to portray that these people arent okay and are after her, so i think they should follow her, i think the last scene before the opening ends should be her thinking shes finally escaped them, and then another one appears closer than ever

3/24 updates on progress

so since sofia has been in europe for the last few days :( 
i been waiting for her to return so we can start filming



we havent really been communicating much but ive been thinking of our main character and how we can make her appeal and relate most to our target audience, which is teenagers ages 14-19. by making her more relate-able to the average teen, the audience will easily put themselves in her shoes and add the scare factor in that what happened to her can happen to anyone

To achieve this i was thinking of showing a lot of pov shots so the audience can quite literally feel how she feels in the situation she is put in

i was thinking of portraying the girl as an every day citizen, i plan to do this by dressing her casually, and have her speak innocent and casually.

as the scenes play out, i think her character should develop more and more in the sense that she becomes more and more frightened, as opposed to the beginning where she things everything is okay. As she continues to feel more and more scared, the music will intensify along with it

3/17 title ideas

earlier i was reading this article on some blog i found  about the importance of a film title and i found it very interesting just how essential a good title is in a film. not only is it very important for it to e catchy, but for it to be direct. this brought me to the thought of our film and some potential titles we could use in order to set the tone for the journey viewers are going to embark on.  i really want to make it something the viewers will be extremely enticed to find out the context of the words behind the entire movie.

sofia and i cant seem to come up with a title for our film so i thought i would generate a few ideas on here to propose to her tomorrow

since our film is a combination of horror and suspense i think we need a name to match just that
all the suspense movies ive researched are kinda a sum up of the main point in the movie but doesnt give up whats gonna happen like Halloween, the blair witch project, and hush. the names all showcase the main idea but without context it is up to the viewers discretion to guess what it could be about.

because it is a psychological thriller i think it should have something to do with the mind itself, but there are also a number of ways we could go about this

i originally was using this software to generate some random titles but after seeing a few i found some inspiration of my own

"something in the shadows"
"who are you"
"her eyes"
"control"
"dimension zero"
"where is my mind"
"unidentified"
"endless road"
"generation stray"


these are only a few ive thought of but im gonna ask a few of my peers for input and i will see where that takes me.

3/17 updated storyboard

we updated our storyboard and finally got it drawn out so far. Its cool to see how the project changes as we plan it more. some of our ideas in terms of shots have been altered, our beginning scene is gonna start with an extreme close up of her opening her eyes. Nothing else will be shown in terms of her surroundings to create a suspenseful opening. after looking at this i want to make more changes.. oops, after her eyes open i think it should cut to a black screen with the title (which we havent decided just yet) along with this royalty free suspense cue, and then cut back to the scene i can see the idea in my head and im so excited to see that come to life!

3/17 more updates :)

sofia is leaving for europe this spring break! im so excited for her but this means we cant film this week :( instead we will have to wait until she returns but that gives us more time to prepare for what we will actually be filming so i wanted to talk about a few ideas i have in terms of editing and music


editing

So i was thinking in terms of font for the title and after looking at the common ones in film like in halloween



but i think this is far too basic and playful for the type of movie opening we want to do
so i kept looking and found this one

it fits our theme perfectly, its distorted in such a way that the audience knows almost immediately what type of film they are about to see and the website i would be using to achieve this would be this called urban fonts. very simple to use!

in terms of transitions and cuts i really wanted to do fast paced cuts to emphasize the urgency and suspense we are looking for a little like this


Music

Ok so i havent really discussed this with sofia but im gonna show her my ideas and this post when i see her tomorrow but i found some really cool royalty free suspenseful music to add in the background on this website

as for the forest scene goes, the forest doesnt really have any apparent sounds that can be picked up from the camera, so i found this really realistic nature sounds clip that i think we can add to make it all seem a bit more natural

heres one i found on the website, it is very creepy but subtle so it doesnt really give away what exactly is going on


this one is also pretty cool, also very subtle

i found this one on another website which i really liked because its very eire and suspenseful as it plays the intensity rises and i think that would be perfect for when the driver shows his mentally insane side

Sound effects

I know we are gonna need some added sounds to make it feel more realistic so heres a few i found

this one is foot steps walking on dried leafs which could easily imitate her walking through the forest

i really liked this one to play when she finally gets out of the forest

boy did i get excited about this one! listening to these sounds are giving me so many ideas. i wanna play this sound clip of ears ringing when shes waking up in the forest i think this would look so cool

3/17 Location

So for location me and sofia have agreed upon this spot, i was gonna go take actual pictures but this weekend has been a busy one so here is one from google maps!

we chose this location because it fits the exact ominous type vibe we are going for, shes gonna wake up deep in the Forrest and end up on the path that leads to the road, this area is a long road with trees and nothing else so it helps establish that she is alone and vulnerable.

i was also thinking in terms of shots this area is absolutely perfect! here are a few i was considering


I know the forest doesnt look dense however that photo was taken in 2011, it is currently filled with tall trees i really wanna recreate a shot like this



the camera far away so she seems like she is being watched from afar

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one from behind as if shes being chased and to add to the suspense

3/10 Mise en Scene

Heres a few ideas I have on setting the scene :)

First, I want to film the hitch hiker scene in daylight, because it would be hard to see what is going on if it was nighttime, and instead use some filters to make it look a little darker. 

And the setting, of course, a forest area classic horror movie setting.

As for props, I think we need to make everything look a bit more rustic as opposed to the park that is Markham, to achieve this i think we should avoid the public areas and find some secluded areas, Im gonna go location scouting tomorrow. Also I think the drivers car should look worn out as opposed to a pristine new car, we must set the scene as realistic as possible. Im so excited for what we come up with, 

Here are a few images that have brought me some inspiration in terms of mise-en-scene 

I really like this image, and hope to incorporate this shot in our project, the way it is set up shows her vulnerability and infers that she is being watched

 maybe even a shot from outside of the car to show the driver slowing down to speak