Intertextuality

An intertextual reference is a recognisable feature from one media text that can be used in another. 

 

Because our film was based around a Halloween Party we needed the 'guests' to be dressed as Halloween characters. One that we felt was very typical of a Halloween character was the Scream grim reaper. We felt that we should use an intertextual reference of the mask so that the audience know what sort of film Coulrophobia is going to be and will help them decide on whether they would want to go and see it at the cinema, because fans of the Scream films will also most likely be interested in going to see Coulrophobia as it contains the same concept of a masked killer. We decided on just using the mask so that you can still see the the body of the person wearing the mask. This was so that it does not take away from the fear that the actual killer, the clown, has on the audience. It also helps the storyline to continue featuring an anonymous killer as it leaves options open for the audience to decide who the killer may be as you cannot see all the male's faces in the trailer. This will keep the audience guessing throughout which is vital in order to make sure they remain interested in the film.

Props

When planning our film an important aspect we needed to address was which props we were going to use.

Because it is based around a Halloween party, we needed to gather a lot of Halloween props. These included thing such as Bunting and Masks/costumes as we had to provide some Halloween costumes for our actors in order for the Halloween party to look realistic. 

We decided on the clowns weapon being a jagged knife which we took influence from films such as Scream as the Grim Reaper uses an axe to kill his victims and the clown in the film Halloween uses a kitchen knife. Because our location contained a room with a selection of knifes in, we felt that this would be the best option for the killers weapon in our film. We wanted the knife to catch the light in our trailer however we found this difficult because of the strobe lighting we had used.

We also decided to collect empty bottles of alcohol to scatter around our location so that it was more believable that the characters were under the influence as this is a 'typically teenage' thing to do. We also used the scene of the mirror to show that the character is fetching a bottle of vodka from the cupboard. This plays on the fact that because the teenager is drinking, perhaps under-age, she is ultimately sinning and will later be punished because of these actions. This relates to the 'Final Girl Theory' as those who are no longer 'pure' normally are punished for their actions.

Lighting

Strobe

For our party scenes during the film we wanted to create a nightclub effect as we had decided to base our film around a typical teenage party. We took influence from Skins as there is a lot of strobe lighting used in the parties that take place there. 

We therefore found a strobe light that we could use and decided upon using it as our only source of light when filming as we thought this would be more effective than if the light was on. 

Problems we faced:

Because we had to film our actors dancing in the strobe light we found that because it flashed on and off so quickly, the camera sometimes would not focus on the people. We found that when we held the strobe light up nearer the camera it was more effective because it lit up people's faces therefore focusing on the victims that the clown will try and murder. This was important because of the use of Facebook profile pictures featuring in our trailer along with the people actually in the party to be linked together by the audience. 

We took a lot of footage for the party scenes to make sure we had enough good quality footage for the final cut of our trailer. This gave us much more variation of shots to choose from and helped when editing them together because the strobe created a smooth effect when editing different shots together as it was not as obvious that we had taken two different cuts and put them together.

Other Lighting

Because the lighting was fairly dark anyway as we were in a cellar at night time, this meant that we didn't have to alter the lighting for the scenes outside the main party room that much because it already had quite a 'creepy' affect to it without much alteration. We ensured that for the scene which contained the mirror, we had quite high key lighting so that the shot of the clown behind the girl in the mirror was more effective, otherwise audiences may not notice the clown and it wouldn't have the same effect.

Colour editing

For our trailer we film a shot of the clown watching one of the characters leaving in their car, as one of the suggested improvements was to include discordent shots. To match the rest of our trailer we decided to dim the colour in the shot, however this made the clown not stand out enough and therefore people may not see him. We took inspiration from this video and goggled how to created a colour splash, as we wanted only the clown to be in colour, the answer we found used final cut pro to do this however as we are editing on iMovie we could not use this, so we found this website and used it as a guide to how to create the colour splash using photoshop:

http://www.mmprint.com/blog/2011/easy-color-splash-guide-black-white-photos/

Here are some screenshots of the photoshop editing in process:

Unfortunately this didn't work as once we had finished the colour editing it would not convert back into video format, we therefore made the colour of the clips darker and used the ken burns zoom to zoom into the clown to make him stand out.

Shooting Script

Party Scene - filmed from different angles (high-angle, medium shot, POV) inside and outside

People dancing, drinking, snacks 

No clown

Lighting: strobe lights, low lighting

Sound: music
Filmed on 20/11/12

Party Scene clown at the window - filmed from the doorway (zoom into the window)

People dancing, drinking

Lighting: strobe lights, low lighting

Sound: music 
Filmed on 20/11/12

Party Scene clown appears at the door - filmed from the opposite corner (high-angle shot)

People dancing, drinking, clown appears at the door, walks slowly into the party

Lighting: strobe lights, low lighting, high-lighting focused on the clown

Sound: music
Filmed on 20/11/12

Party Scene clown in the party - filmed from in the party (POV)

People dancing looking at the clown

Lighting: strobe lights, low-lighting

Sound: music
Filmed on 20/11/12

Nurse takes the clown off to another room - filming from the doorway (medium shot)
The nurse grabs his hand and pulls him out the room
Lighting: low-lighting
Sound: music
Filmed on 20/11/12

Clown wiping blood off the knife - close up of the knife and his hands
The clown comes out of the room and cleans the blood of the knife
Lighting: low-lighting
Sound: music

Party Scene - filmed from the corner (medium shots)

People dancing

No clown

Lighting: lights go off

Sound: people scream
Filmed on 20/11/12

Coughing up blood - extreme close up
Someone coughing up blood after being stabbed
Lighting: low-lighting
Sound: song

Slit throat - medium shot, high-angle shot
Shot a body on the floor with a slit throat
Lighting: low-lighting
Sound: song
Filmed 20/11/12

Dead bodies - close ups
Showing where they had been stabbed and that they are dead
Lighting: low-lighting
Sound: song

Clown walks towards the camera - long shot
The clown walks towards the camera 
Lighting: low-lighting, strobe lighting
Sound: song
Filmed on 20/11/12


N.B. The shots that are highlighted in orange are shots that we decided not to film on the day as we thought that they would not be relevant anymore.