Shot types
Wide shots - main protagonist would be standing in a tunnel, conveying the spookiness of the location.
Close ups- there would be close ups of the characters facial expression to show his / hers emotions contrasting to the narrative.
Medium shots - convey the surroundings of the locations and the characters fears e.g possible a room, tunnel, public isolated places.
Establishing shot - to introduce the location to make he audience aware of the setting.
Locations
Woolwich - there is a tunnel that is connected between North Woolwich and Woolwich Arsenal. It is very isolated and eerie, perfect for a isolation sort of feeling picture.
Loughton - I would like to go there as it has a nice forest to take shots of my character standing mysteriously in the woods. (possibly)
Public pathways - to convey the realism in the characters life, however no one about.
Bedroom setting possibly - to show the daunting paranoia that the characters is recieving from the sahdow figures.
Nature/ tree's - shadow figures hiding around.
Mise En Scene Photography
I chose split for my thriller genre as it contains the typical conventions of thriller. For example the still I chose from the film is this shot of the antagonist within the film in a close up looking towards the camera. The still has a very low key lighting but has a fades of light coming across parts of his face which provokes the audience which allows them to see his terrifying facial expression. There is a yellow/ green tone filter which contributes to the thriller genre. This use of colours is very dark and misty which creates a low tone and no time for excitement. The man’s facial expression is very intense and in the audiences face allow them to have a disturbance of personal space. The use of props of the bars creates an imprisonment feeling which visceral pleasure for the audience. The use of blood creates the thrill of the horror subgenre.
Drama
For my other genre I chose the fault in our stars for my drama genre. The protagonist is low across the ground on which her up half of her body, this is shown through a mid-shot. This allows the audience to see her facial expression and her body structure. The mise en scene is presented outside at night on the grass. This creating the use of low key lighting creating the dramatic tone as there is only light within her. There are no props but she is wearing a white top conveying some sort of innocence.
Romance
For my romance genre I chose ‘dear john’ as it contains a tragic love story but withholds many conventionss of romance. The still has a high key lighting which emphasis’s the romantic convention and you can see the light is coming from the right hand side. The shot is very vibrant so you can see all the detail: the rain is very sharp and the movement is conspicuous. The setting is outdoors in daylight creating the typical ‘kissing in the rain’ scene. This conveys the amount of lust the two have within the shot, this also conveys there has been a distance struggle. The amount of wood creates a rustic vibe, bringing the audience out to the wildness. In terns of costumes they are both wearing dark clothing, which contrast with the bright colours of the background. Both of the characters facial expression is very indulgent with each other, as they are both looking into each other’s eyes. The body language is inwards o each other. The colour of the still is very vibrant and natural colours with the concept of brown and green predominantly. This is a wide shot allowing everything to be in the shot. This still conveys the typical romantic genre with the high key lighting to the generic narrative of ‘kissing in the rain’.
Practise shoot
For my practise shoot I attempted to recreate he split still. I took many pictures of my model in a dark, isolated area. It was hard to find a place with black bars nearby within the amount of time given so I used this location with a metal gate attached to a staircase, however this prevented the positioning of the hands, as the original had the hands holding onto the closest bars. I directed him to react the similar facial expression was not too hard. For editing I lowered the brightness down to match the darkness of the original still. Played around with the colouring of the image to create the yellowy / green filter and added a hint of red to manifest the thriller within the still. After I used the burn tool to darken the background and his face, due bringing up the brightness the natural lighting shown in the image kept coming up and causing a shine, burning that section was the solution. Selected the bar sections individually and lowered the brightness on it to create the black bar effect. After I used the blur tool to on the background to create that blurry effect. Used the paint brush, lowered the opacity and created the rotten bloody teeth after. If I had more time i would burn the face more and fix the contrast of the background.
Further genre anylsis - horror
This is a still from the film insidious chapter 2. You can’t really see the setting or location in this still has its all pitch dark, but this creates the most intensity due to the enigma. The most significant part of this still is the costume and the make up. The women in the shot has ghostly make up on, shown through the white foundation and red lipstick, which also infers a circus feel to it. She’s wearing a white Saturn material, which indicates she’s an old character from the past. Her facial expression is predominant has it is very close up. She looks very creepy and mentally unstable which signifies the amount of build up in the film. It has a very blue hue to the shot, which contrasts with the amount of darkness in the image creating an icy feeling. The shot is ha very low-key lighting, which introverts the conventional horror factor. This image could be produced through photography by mainly Photoshop editing by putting the lighting down and putting the hue/ saturation to a blue filter.
This still is from The Babadook. The setting is located in an isolated kitchen with a colour scheme which is very monochromatic, creating no emotion just a constant focus on the depth of the dinner table. The costumes are very outdated which signifies the time frame within the film. Usually a typical horror convention is to set it back in a time a little to portray the history of a narrative and its supernaturalism. The lighting is very low key however the focal lighting is right in the middle creating an intensity which drives the depth of the awkwardness between the son and the mother. Around the table there are corners which are very dark creating the solitude of the narrative in the dinner still. The colour is very plain with one tone; black and white. The positioning of the two characters creates an estranged factor as they are perceived to be ‘mother and son’, however there is a deep distance between the two. They are both starring at each other creating an intensity and an enigma as the audience are unclear of the domestic situation. In terms of photography would shoot with one main flash light towards the middle and editing with the brightness down and use the dodge and burn tool to create the contrast of the lighting.
This still is from the film The Others. The location is quite vague due to the amount of blurriness. You can tell it’s an old fashioned bedroom with the wooden bed stand on the left hand side. The location of the film is based in a haunted house which is a stereotypical location of a horror genre. The costume of the little girl wearing a white cloth which conveys an ideology of a ghostly bride. This could terrify an audience with the concept of a child bride or the conventional ghost story hating people in a house. The lighting is low key with a varied amount of darkness on the left and building up some light coming from the right. The colouring is quite a faded tone which syncs into the blend of the old fashions of the setting. The positioning of the women old the young girl is strange, which could relate the peculiar narrative of the film. In terms of photography this could be shot in a dark bedroom setting with someone wearing a white cloth.
This still is from the film Oculus. Setting is in a dark hallway with a bunch of lamps on the ground. It’s very dark which contributes again to the horror narrative. The main character is using the prop of a flashlight, connoting she is looking for someone/ something. The lighting is again low key due to the lack of light in the hallway creating uneased feeling for the audience. It has a blue filter due to the lights. Her facial expression is very unsure and nervous creating the tenseness from the still. In terms of photography this could be edited by using the colour balance and changing the hue to the blue tones.
This still is from the movie IT. This is a remake of the classic film by Steven Kings. The still id a very close up shot of the antagonist; the clown. Predominantly the makeup and costume is what makes up the horror conventions of the shot. The idea of a clown itself is a scary concept, but the reality of the makeup and costume is magnificent. The use of red eyes starring right in to your soul creates a shocking feeling to the audience. It has a low key lighting and a white / blue hue to it. The clown’s facial expression is horrifying due to the amount of makeup and realism to it.
This still is from the film ‘the conjuring’. The setting isn’t very visible as it has a shallow depth of field that is mainly focused on the women’s face. It has high key lighting, which is ironic for the horror convention however the tone is very low. There is light mainly coming onto the women’s face, as there is more detail there. The filtering of the still has very dark tones, which consist of browns predominantly. This signifies the shallowness of the use of lighting trying to convey her facial expression. Moreover her facial expression is what portrays the horror convention in the still, as it is the focal point. She looks very disturb by the use of the prop of the toy and her eyes are very in depth.
This shows the audience would give more attention to her reaction out of outcome of the situation. The use of props is the wind up toy, which is stereotypical and conventional of children horror films due to the increasing diegetic sound of the toy. This would provoke an audience due to the fast paste. In terms of photography this would be shot with a small aperture with a shallow depth of field. Edited with the blur tool and playing around with the brightness and saturation.
Experiments
From the analysis I have found out that the use of low key lighting is the most predominant in all the horror stills. In my experimental pictures I would like to capture the use of low key pictures, close ups, costume make up and the play with colour filters such as blue or green.
Horror experiments
For my first experiment I had the idea of using facial expressions and colour to help produce a horror conventional still. I used the LED light and a green gel filer to create the image. I had a assistant to help hold up the light. In terns of location I used a dark room, which would manifest the conventional horror low-key lighting in the room. I went to a dark room fire exit space in college to help produce the dark setting. However had a problem with the lighting, as there was a slight bit of light coming through the door. From this I had to keep repositioning the model to get the right amount of light. The light was cancelled out by the high intensity of the green gel filter which made the process of editing less easier.
I played around with the colour balance and made the tone more blended with original green gel. The lowering the brightness allowed the still to be more surrounded by the shadowy effect around him. The facial expression mainly creates the image, as is the most predominant with the psychotic feel to the still. The exaggeration to the smile creates a nervous feeling due to the enigma of the character standing creepily. I like the still because of the simplicity it gives. To improve I could of used solid background.
For the editing process I put down the brightness and added a red filter using the colour balance. I also played around with the curves to adjust the darkness factor of the still. One thing I disliked of the image was the makeup as it was not professional enough. So the editing had to fix that problem. The red tone allowed the makeup to blend together and with the use of the light shadowing in towards he’s face, it all complemented with each other. After I colour graded the image using the gradient map to create the cinematic look. I think with the colour gradin all the tones contrast with each other and make it work. However this isn’t my favourite picture out of the experiments as I failed with the make up.The idea of my second still was to use the concept of make up to create the horror genre. From my analysis of the six stills, costume make up is generally use to convey the paranormal side of horror.
I was inspire from the SAW make up with the two red circle on the cheeks, giving a clown vibe. I use red lipstick and some white eyeshadow on the eyes. In terms of location I use the same location a before, as it’s the most convenient to do a shoot in a small amount of time. Its ark generally a gives the best feel or a horror genre mise en scene. The facial expression was quite random, he is meant to look sadistic.
For my third shoot I was struggling to come up with idea. This still was quite improvised. The location was in the college toilets near the old entrance. The idea was to have a figure standing next to this disgusting radiator where bacteria was growing to make h concept of a disease being evolve. This was a mid shot and taken with no props. The model had to stand in font of the radiator to create the ominous feel. The photo itself want even so a lot of editing had to be required to create the end outcome.The editing process is where all of the horror convention would be viable onto the still. I cropped the image a lot to make the cinematic width and length. I put down the brightness down. Played around with the levels a little. Used the colour balance to create the green effect onto the radiator part, to create the virus outbreak. Then put the vibrancy down and the exposure
Continued to play around with curves and the exposure to evolve the green intensity in the middle. The light coming from the left side of the picture as something I couldn’t fix, however blended okay with the green part. Then I used the clone tool to manipulate the black bacteria on the radiator. As I used the tool, every time I got higher there was a bumpy part, which didn’t allow me to continue as the image a quite sensitive. I colour graded it with the gradient map to create the cinematic feel. After cropped it again by turning it to make it straighter.
Idea Generation
Moodboard:
This is a sheet wheree i wrote down my first idea for my film. I ene just using the first idea beccause i had a location in mind that satisfied the narrative i had set our. It was simple yet doable. On the other hand another idea would had been to change the use of locations but keep the same plot. The second idea would of been set in a nature settings, to convey the isolation the character had felt and the depth and journeys of being discombobulated. However i feel more confident with the first concept of the use of the tunnels and the domestic setting to convey the realism of the paranormal psychological snyopsis.
The idea i had for the mood board was to show the narratives paranoia side to it with the use of colours and locations. The colourrs i want to use are very dark and misty. Colours such as red and blue, as these colours are very common amongst horror films with the sub genre of thriller. I wanted to use them as they are typical horror convemtions and depict a lot of emtion in a still. The location i had imagained were to be dark, eerie and isolated. To show tthe choas the charatcer is going trhough, as they are travelling all the way to a tunnel to be away from the human interactions. I hopefully inspired to take a picture of shadow figures to convey the demon aspect of the paranoia the charcter is facing. Also close ups of the characters fcaial expression to convey the fear and disgression in his/her face.
This is another mood board however showing the types of facial expression or positioning i want to be in my framing. Most of the positions i want my character to have an impact on is to be afraid or confused, as she is going through something traumatic in this world of isolation. there will be sots of her on the ground curling up into a frighten position to keep away the demons that are in her head. this will be held in the tunnel shot or her bedroom. There will be many close ups of her face looking towards the camera and looking confused or looking for the demons that are supposedly following her. Most shots will be also in her bedroom where she will be panicking in her closed world where she is locked away in he room,. She will be looking into the mirror maybe or sitting on the floor looking around fearfully for the demons/ shadow figures lurking. I would take multiple pictures of her facial expressions as a close up and somehow editing them together to gather a horror looking confused image of herself going crazy.
This is another mood board showing the kind of locations i would like to use for my film or types of shots. The starting location i know for sure i will be using is the Woolwich foot tunnel not far from college. This would be where she discovers herself going into paranoia at the start of the narrative. The next type of location would be a domestic setting to show the realism in the narrative, as she is the only character shown throughout the story. Shots of her looking terrified on her bedroom floor with a door creaking would be good, as it would convey a shadow figure is coming. This shot would be quite enigmatic as audience doesn't know would be coming through. Using the same bedroom location, there will be a shot of a actual shadow figure within the framing. This would fit a conventional horror still, traditionally. Other locations if i have time to get would be of her going through a dark pathway at night o capture the reality of her solitude journey.
These are some films i have taken aspiration upon for my film. Each film has an element of a stalking situation from another human being. However mine will consist of shadow figures to create the horror genre. I personally enjoyed Hush which had a interesting narrative and interesting stills. From this trailer i liked the use of close ups and facial expressions. For my i would like to take close ups of my character of them looking fearful or confused from the paranoia of the shadow figures. Hush is known for its basic use of narrative but amazing way of visual and cinematography. The use close ups will allow me to capture my characters emotion in one moment in time and allow the most focus on her / his face. Hush's narrative is great and i like the realism of the situation of a real person instead of a supernatural stalker.
Halloween is a classic horror from the 70's. The movie has inspired me, as i like the use of shots and colours. All the shots have dark colours or are generally have low key light. I hope to use the same use of low key for my own pictures. I like the shots of when the three girls are outside and the shot when the girl is alone hiding in a house with a slight bit of light coming on to her face. There are many scene with the perfect use of light. One scene is in a daylight which has the greenery effect and one scene has a pumpkin with a light coming from it and the shot has a orangey tone light effect. When editing i would colour grade the image to get a coloured image. The next shot i really liked was the women against the wall, her position in the frame. the use of colours and shots is very good in halloween.
The house at the end of street is more of a new horror film starring Jennifer Laweremce. I like the narrative in this film, as it has a horror thriller stalking plot, which can be seen has insidious. I like the use of colours and cinematography in this trailer. Its based in a small town near the woods. So if i had based my narrative in the woods instead of a tunnel and domestic settings, this would be a great imitation and inspiration to take upon. I enjoyed the film when i watched it with the cool narrative because there is a cliff hanger that the audience doesn't expect. From this trailer i would like use the use of colours and the use of establishing shots are great. There are mainly orange, green and dark use of colurs mainly in the trailer, if they are outside it is mainly green and if they inside it would be orange.
Synposis
One girls story. She going crazy in the lonely world we called, earth. Unopened truths are outlet into common day society. She can hear voices that no one can hear, yet as she is surrounded by millions every day. Isolation is one singles persons nightmare. She being stalked by shadow like figured that follows her around, which causes her sanity.
Intended Audience
The intended audience would be a younger audience ranged between 15-25. Any race, both genders, any occupation. This would be the demographic because under 15's would find some of the horror elements to much and would be inappropriate for them. From reading the BBFC website, no depiction of sadistic or sexual threat is allowed. Moreover the audience for over 18 would be appropriate for the shocking horror genre conventions.
Shooting Plan
Costumes
General clothing - shirts, tops, jeans.
This is to show the realness of the characters life. no props are needed either.
Lighting
Low key - to convey the typical horror convention through the isolated shots of the main character.
high key - some shots may be in day light like shots of him generally hanging around in public places/ near a forest.
Artificial lighting - the tunnel wil contain light bulbs.
Editing
Brightness tool
Curves
Hue tool
Burn tool
Crop tool
Body Language
Distressed positions - to show the paranoia kicking in.
Confused facial expressions - the characters doesn't know who's following him.
Thriller
Shot types
Shot one - this will be inside the tunnel between Woolwich Arenal and North Woolwich. It will be a dark ominous green mise en scene to create the isolated horror conventional establishing shot.
Shot two - this will be a close up of her face, with her hands around her face possibly. It will be low key and have a blue hint as the colour grade to create the cinematic look. The point of this would to convey her emotions.
Shot three - this would be another close up of her face. However i would like it to be edited to look very ghostly or dark, to show the visual effect of her paranoia. The colour grade would have a red hint.
Shot four - She is still in the foot tunnel, but here she will be sitting on the floor with her hands against her head. This would be very low key, blurry somehow and the main mise en scene colours would be just dark.
Shot five - this would be a very focused close up of her face with the aperture on the lowest f-number to take in all the detail from her face. This would be a shallow depth of field and have a colour grade of red.
Shot six - mid shot of half of her upper body. Her facial expression would look very crazy / scary. Some of the background will be showing to show the isolation. Colour grade will be a yellow or orange hint.
Shot seven - change of location this would be at a house in a bedroom now. Using a LED light to create some shadows and depth into her room and mid shots of her face or body language. This would be a green or blue hint.
Shot eight - mid shot or wide shot of a door creaking in whilst she is sitting on the floor looking scared. This will be very low key, and edited to with a blue colour grade.
Shot nine - this would be another shot in her bedroom. However more of a shadow figure visible in the shot. This would be mid shot and edited with a blue colour grade.
Test pictures
Before the actual shoot I took some test pictures of the facial expressions I would like to capture for my cinematic project. I used the backdrop that is available ad my college and use colour gels with a LED light to capture the blue and purple colours.
I am inspired to create facial expressions that are confused and distressed as my story is about a young person who is paranoid about shadow things following him. I instructed him to put his hands on is face to show his in distress and it shows he has had a lack of sleep. The main aim of these pictures is o convey the amount of emotion the paranoia is creating for the main character. To create these i left the camera on apeture mode with the f number of 1.8 for most of them. The ISO settings where on the correct settings.
Film photo shoot
For the first shoot of my horror genre film was in a foot tunnel in between Woolwich Arsenal and North Woolwich. I travelled from college and it took about 20 minutes to get there the area is quite local for me. I had this place in my mind for a while, as it is quite isolated and eerie, so the horror genre was perfect for this location. For equipment I had a LED light and a coloured gels to help produced some of the pictures. I mainly used the LED to take some of the pictures, however the tunnel lighting was enough to help produced the horror conventions for my stills. I enjoyed this shoot, as the foot tunnel location was amazing and majorly helped with my pictures to look better. On the other hand, the only problem I had was holding the LED light and the gel whilst taking the photo was quite a mission.
First shoot:
The character at this point has discovered she is being followed is becoming paranoid, so evidently she is going to a isolated location to be alone and attempting to escape the demons in her head, however is going crazy anyways. This was taken in the foot tunnel with no props, just the camera. I directed her to stand into the centre of the tunnel and look forward. To edit i played around with the curves and lowered the lighting to make it more low key. The location was enough
to build up the horror convention of the image. So i didn't need to edit that much. Then i lowered the brightness, put down the exposure a little. Finally i colour graded it with the gradient map to create the green tone effect. I adjusted the effect to soft light and lowered the opacity a little. This made the whole still effectively into a horror still with the use of depth in the walls, which creates a delusion that is never ending. The camera made the light effect in the middle, this made the deception of the tunnel lights shining on her. The colour grading improved the look of the image as it made it look more cinematic.
This is the point where she realised she's going mad. So i decided to take some close up's of her facial expressions to convey her emotion from the paranoia. I directed her to put her hands against her face and look as if someone was following her. First with all the images i cropped it with the crop tool to a cinematic framing which is 16 by 9. Then i played around with the curves to darken it up, as the original was bright in the background.. Then i used the quick selection tool on her only and used the curves to make brighter. Then i used the exposure tool to lower the amount of light within the picture. The problem i had was if i used the curves to darken the background, she would go darker. So i had to edit them separately. Finally i just colour graded it with the gradient map with a blue tone, made it soft light and
down the opacity. I attempted to try other colours such as red for the colour grading, however it wasn't good enough and i also lost that edit. This isn't one of my favourites out of my stills, however shows her enough emotions; scared and frazzled.
This is my favourite image that i took for all the pictures from the first shoot. At this point i was intending to take picture of close ups of her face. This was to convey her emotions of the passage of paranoia that she is going through. In terms of the image itself, there wasn't much to to do apart fro the light in the background and her facial expression, so i thought to edit it more intensely and create a conventional horror still. I had some aspiration from a video on youtube to make this. To edit i first went on the filter gallery and adding some noise to it. Changing the features into monochromatic and the amount to 2. From another close up i took of her, separately i used the quick selection tool to take just a image of her by herself and converted it to the main image and created a new layer. Now editing the selected new image i went on the filter
gallery again and used he motion blur on the distance 30 to created faded effect. This created shadow figure of her main image.
Then going to the filter gallery again i went on distort and wave to create the wobbly effect on the shadow figure. The distorted shadow figures would convey the crazy trauma she is going through in the tunnel. After i used the diffused glow effect on distort to create the wavy effect and grainy effect. I adjusted the shadow effect near her face to make it more believable that there is a shadow figure attached to her. I put down the opacity down on the separate shadow effect layers and adjusted them. Moreover, after all this i used the curves tool to lower the brightness to create the eerie feel to the image. Then o used the gradient map to colour graded it and made it to soft light and lowered the opacity a little. The outcome was this pinky red tone effect with the dark shades coming out black, this made the shadows most predominant within the image. The image was cropped first by 16 by 9.
The intended aspiration for this picture was to convey she was to stressed from seeing all the figures in her head, so i had her sit on the floor. Originally i was going to edit a shadow figure in the background, but that wasn't possible. So i had to change the plans for the image by adding motion blur. Firstly i cropped it to 16 by 9 then i played around with the curves to lower the warmth of the lights and the yellow tones. Then i put down the brightness to even make it more creepy. Then i used the quick selection tool around her only and then inverted it so the background so the cut around her would be clean and the background would only be edited. At this point i used the motion blur from the filter gallery and adjusted the number to actually show the strength of her stressed levels and the paranoia. Finally to make
it more realistic i used the blur tool around her to blend in the motion blur within the outskirts of her. This intention now for the image to portray the paranoia mainly depicted from her body language and with the use of the motion blur.
This is a close up of her face to show her emotions through the depth of her facial expression. I used the lowest f-number on the aperture mode. This has a shallow depth of field and follows he rule of thirds slightly. The image has the right amount of blur in the background for he audience to focus on her face. To edit i used the crop tool and made it by 16 by 9. Then i played around with curves to adjust the amount of light in the image. I used the gradient map to colour grade the image. I used a red colour to colour graded then changing the effect to the vivid light. This made the red gently hit the image and nicely blended with the background with her face. The pin light is what makes the image as well as her facial expression. I didn't used the other images because the lighting would not contrast in some and others where she was standing was to far sometimes.
This was the last image i edited from the first shoot. The intention for this image was to direct her to move her arms around her head and widen her eyes to convey she has actually and literally gone crazy now. I used the lowest f-number to create a shallow depth of field and this image follows the rule of thirds. To edit i first cropped it by 16 by 9. Then played around with the curves to adjust the lighting within the image. Next i lowered the brightness a little and use the exposure tool
a little. Her eyes were to white so i used the burn tool to darken her eyes to make it more scary. Finally i used the gradient map to colour grade. I used some yellow toned colours to blend with the background lights in the tunnel, then adjusted the effect to vivid light which made the colour grade all smooth within the still. This also made the colour blend in the background with the ligjts. This meets a conventional horror film because of the help of her body and facial language.
Second photo shoot - domestic setting:
For the second shoot i went to her house in Forest Gate where i would take pictures within her bedroom setting to cerate the realism within the images. I had asked her to look frightened and as if someone was in the room watching her. I used a LED light to create the ray of white lght going onto her face. To edit i cropped the image by 16 by 9. Then i played around with the curves to adjust the amount of light, this helped darken the sides of the image. Then i lowered the brightness a little.
To colour grade i used the gradient map and i used a greeny tone colour to match the colouring f the image as her scarf was green. Then i changed the effect to pin light and lowered the opacity.
The idea of this was to have her sitting on the floor and waiting for a shadow figure to lurk out behind the door. To edit i cropped it by 16 by 9. Then played around with the cures however the image was to dark and you couldn't see her properly. So i used the quick selection tool and selected her to bring up the brightness. The curves
controlled the amount of depth in the shadows in the room and controlled the contrast also. I used the gradient map to colour grade the image to this dark blue hint. This allowed the image to looked more horrifying.
Third shoot - same location:
The idea for this was to have the shadow figure to be seen in one shot. So i made a distorted hand shape on a piece of card and used a LED to show the shadow of the hand. i had to hold the camera, the LED and the hand at the same time, this was very challenging. I took this again at the same domestic location, her house. To edit i cropped the image by 16 by 9. Then i played around with the curves, lowered it down to see hows harp the shadow would come out. Lowered the brightness to make the
image even more sharp. Finally to colour grade i use the gradient map and used a very subtle dark blue to make the image more eerie. As you can see the original was too yellow and warm for a conventional horror film, so the lighting and colour i had to play around with the most.
Third shoot - car park
For this shoot I wanted to capture the idea the shadow figure that the main characters thinks that is following her. So I decided to take a couple of pictures of an actual instead of someone’s shadow. I told my model to wear a hoodie and went to the Stratford centre car park. To edit I cropped it first by 16 by 9 to create the cinematic framing. I played around with the curves to adjust the shadows in the picture. Then I played with he selective colour with the black, neutral and white effects. After I used the gradient map to colour grade the picture. I used a yellow colour, put the blending mode o multiply and lowered the opacity. This picture is a very shallow depth of field, point of view shot. I took this behind his shoulders.
This picture I also used a shallow depth of field over the shoulder, showing the point of view that someone is watching her. This picture is just the same person looking out the car park window outside. To edit I first cropped this by 16 by 9. Then I played with the curves, brightness and used the gradient map to colour grade. I used this dark teal colour-to-colour grade. The blending mode was overlay and I lowered the opacity. I like the focus In this picture on the building outside.
The final picture I decided to edit was this one of him standing in the middle of the car park looking down and ominous. This is more of a wide shot to show the location. To edit I first cropped the picture 16 by 9. Then played with the curves to darken the shadows. Then I used the selective colour on specific colour settings such as white and neutral to adjust the picture more. Finally I used a solid colour such as a dark green, put the blending colour to lighten and lowered the opacity to colour grade the picture. This made the car park more eerie and creepy.
Other pictures that wasn't used and conclusion
Overall from the third shoot I like the shallow depth of fields that I create in the pictures I took. There is a good amount of focus in each picture. One thing I could of done is wait for it to be a little darker and asked my model to bring a darker hoodie instead of a purple one.