Reflection on the Filming

How did you work together as a group?
As a group we started by assigning roles to each other so we covered every aspect as we went and that we didn’t forget anything, initially I was allocated to be in charge of directing and editing, Robert was in charge of mise en scene and designing the poster and magazine and Muaadh was in charge of the sound, dialogue and getting people to be in trailer this was because we each excelled in those areas however we assisted each other. We worked well as a group as Muaadh got people to be involved in the trailer and they thoroughly enjoyed being the video which made it easier to film. Allocating specific roles to each of us made the quality of our work be more suffient and more accurate to what we wanted, as it was more organised. We all had specific roles so for example: I was in charge of directed and editing so therefore I had an image in my head that I could do an match eyeline frame shot but I also knew that when editing I can zoom into my character which made the match eyeline frame more authentic as I had to distinguish where to position my friend holding the camera and where I should be in the shot.

What were you responsible for doing?
I was responsible for directing what shots should be used and what angles to approach them I was mainly responsible for this because I direct and edit music videos in my spare time in addition I was responsible for the editing because I have a background experience in editing which was an advantage to our group also I have a program at home to edit which made it easier to find time to edit it as that is the longest part of the production. Also I carried out ongoing editing so if I thought that we needed more shots it was my role to gather the group together and get those shots that I needed. As I had background experience of editing videos I used a program which I use at home called Sony Vegas Pro 10.0. As we were producing a horror movie trailer I knew that close ups were important to show how scared they were or if they were struggling to illustrate this was a horror movie so the audience recognize the genre immediately.

When I was directing I may have been a little strict or short tempered but this was to ensure that everyone followed instructions however I was easy to negotiate with because I know I'm not a professional video director so I listened to others ideas and for example when deciding what shot was needed for the end when I was trying to get into the car I suggested the last shot to be an extreme close up of the keys dropping on the floor whereas, Muaadh suggested switching scenes from a Point of view shot from the killers view and an extreme close up of my character struggling to get into the car because this will build up the suspense more and with the epic fast paced music in the background which Muaadh was responsible for it suited well and it worked.

What locations did you choose and why?
We chose the majority of the trailer to be in the woods this was decided as a result from distributing questionnaires and some people suggested they would want to see a horror movie in a woods also through research we was using ‘The Hills have Eyes’, ‘Wilderness’ and ‘Wrong Turn’ as a guide and they were successful horror films which were set in the woods. Additionally we chose the woods because it was feasible to get there as it was not too far from our school which was why we didn’t use a haunted house which our questionnaire results gave us because it would be very time consuming. We also used our teacher's office for the opening shots where we receive the camping assignment for our boss to allow the audience to understand the plot of this film. I used my bedroom to stick up a few photos of all of us at parties and having a good time with friends to imply innocence for the characters for the shot where the killer has circled who he has targetted because my bedroom had a plain white wall for me to do that additionally I used my garden at night for the close up of the killer holding the knife with blood because I also had a garden light to help me.

What props did you use in your trailer?
We used a large knife as the killer’s weapon because it is a very typical murder weapon's also it is very phallic. We used fake blood to create a more authentic look to the killer and victims linking to this we used gloves for the killer at times to hide his identity in the trailer because we did not give away his identity for the whole trailer but in the film you would find out who the killer was. We used photos of us for the trailer to illustrate we were the killers targets hence our slogan ‘Unfinished Business….’ because the killer wants to seek revenge. We attempted to create a fire in the woods to give authenticity that we were at camp, this was difficult as we had to use paper because the wood was wet but we managed to create a little fire. We used a car to make it look more like we were older men from work given this assignment.

How did you create a realistic atmosphere?
The realistic atmosphere was created by the location as it was very isolated and could see the roads also specifically in scenes were Robert gets snatched Muaadh and my pal Imran shook the bushes to make it seem like there was a movement so Robert becomes agitated and frightened. Furthermore to create the correct atmosphere facial expressions were very important to look afraid and unaccompanied. The camera angles used were important to create the realistic atmosphere therefore close ups such as, as soon as Robert hears the bushes moving you see his facial expression to illustrate he is terrified and this caused the audience to believe that if the character is scared then they may be scared and recognize it is a horror movie.


Were there any difficulties you faced whilst filming? (People walking into your shots?) How did you resolve this issue?
People walked into our shots at the end as it was just outside the woods where the car was parked and it made it difficult to shoot so we had to wait till they left, this meant that we knew we had to shoot quickly before any more people pass through this wasn’t much of a problem because we followed our storyboard so we knew what we had to do exactly with facial expressions, sounds and what the shot entailed.