CRITICAL EVALUATION

I have enjoyed doing this subject as it has been centred on creativity and I am interested in being a Director but also like the Art Direction side of things too as I have studied Interior design which I think can cross over when thinking about set design. For my personal proposal I chose to do a horror and base it on something that I don’t like myself which is slugs. When undertaking research for this genre I looked at other similar films and also got my ideas from observing actual animal habits and adapting them to my story. I think this really helped in giving my story detail, for example I found out that when a certain species of toad lays eggs they go on its back and a layer of skin forms over the top to protect them and so when they hatch they break through the skin membrane and it looks quite gruesome and that’s why I decided the slugs would break out through lumps in the skin. I also discovered that when some species of spiders hatch from their eggs they will eat the mother who sacrifices herself for them and that gave me the idea for the slugs to head back to girl, who they came from, to feed off rather than the father or anyone else. I also read an article about these white slugs that have been found to eat animals, rather than just plants, making them carnivorous and that’s what gave me the idea of the slugs eating human flesh. 

The films I used as my inspiration were ‘Slither’ (2006, James Gunn) and ‘Dreamcatcher’ (2003, Lawrence Kasdan) and once I had the basis for my idea I then discovered that there was actually a film called ‘Slugs’ (Juan Piquer Simon) made in 1988 that was also about flesh eating slugs that had been exposed to toxic waste which had made them evolve into flesh eaters. I found watching the film useful as it was a real B-movie and from the feedback I’d got from my first proposal mine was stuck somewhere in the middle of B-movie and a more serious film so I decided to learn from the film and do mine a bit more darker and serious instead. I also watched 'Evil Dead 2' (1987, Sam Raimi) which was also very over the top and cheesy but it was great for observing the use of special effects.

I think what my research lacked was academic texts in the way of books as sources of inspiration and information and if I could do it again I would definitely do some more reading and find out what books could help me as a lot of good ideas come from books and are adapted from books. I am very passionate about wildlife and nature that’s why I chose to use animals themselves as the main source of inspiration because I think the closer you base your idea on something that is real or actually happens the scarier it makes it. I think this links back to the theory of the uncanny in the way that too is based on the theory of people being afraid of things which look real or like something we know but then have something slightly different about them that makes them uncanny so they are frighteningly similar. The fact that carnivorous slugs have been discovered that can eat meat means there is nothing to say that they wouldn’t be able to eat human flesh now or sometime in the future if they evolve the ability even more. I liked my finished proposal but I think if I was to do it again I would try and think of something more unusual and original than slugs so maybe making up my own creature basing it on the more stranger attributes of other creatures. I also think it would make me engage with it more if I had to think of my own creature, then design what it would look like on a moodboard and it would be more interesting than just finding something that already exists.

If I was to make this film myself I would like to film it on location because I think that would give it a real sense of authenticity and make it more real because I want to base it at the Loch Ness and some people will know what that looks like so if you were to show a different lake people would immediately dismiss it. I also think Scotland would be a great place to film anyway because it is so remote and has so many interesting terrains and landscapes like forests, lakes, mountains, the sea and also plenty of wildlife. Apart from the lake the main location would be the log cabin where the first account of the horror would take place. I would want the cabin to have quite a minimal feel to it but also cosy at the same time because I don’t want the audience to know what’s coming and if the cabin already has a dark creepy feel to it I think they would immediately sense something bad's going to happen. I would want the initial filming to take place on a cloudy but not dull day so the clouds would be quite white because I think too many horrors start on a bright sunny day and it’s too predictable and at first I would like things to appear genuinely normal in the film so the darkness to come is a real shock. The main effects would obviously be centred on the flesh eating slugs so I decided they would be better off being visual effects as I don’t know how you would make them look realistic if you were to make them.  After having a quick go on After Effects and Maya I think the slugs would be more easily achieved on these programmes as Maya is a 3D compositing programme which could be used to make and design the slug and then you could transfer that onto After Effects where it could then be given movement by using the tracking tool and keyframes for each slug. As there would be quite a few slugs (and slugs all look quite similar) I think you could make one generic slug on Maya and duplicate it on After Effects and then give each one individual movement using the tracking device. I also looked at a few tutorials on YouTube to give me ideas on how to create the lumps on the skin which I think would look good as a special effect. I found one video which was really helpful as it showed how to make different types of lumps like spots, boils and blisters and it was actually really simple, all you needed was gelatine, plain flour and then food colour and a bit of water. The results were really realistic as well and all you needed to use to create the different looks for each one was a bit of pink eye shadow so I think I would easily be able to re-create this myself. 

As well as the individual project we also participated in a class project based on the subject of the uncanny and as a group we all came up with ideas for sequences that could happen as part of the film. The first sequence was to be a man who had a bug under his skin and this would link to the next scene which was a man in bed who wakes up to discover the man we have just seen is actually a smaller doppelgänger of himself. The last scene was to be a woman who at first appears to be chopping vegetables but on second glance it is an arm and then a creepy backwards crawling woman. We all helped each other but my main role was to be in charge of the bedroom scene and the man waking up to see his smaller self and then floating out of the bed in a dream like way over to him then knocking him off the mantelpiece with a book. My ideas for this were to have a little doll arm or leg sticking out to make it look like he was squashed under the book. I also thought it might look good because if the leg/arm was plastic the audience would then wonder if this little real man was all just a figment of his imagination. I also came up with the idea of smoke coming through the key-hole (taken from my own uncanny proposal idea) and that would alert the man to the woman in the corridor chopping veg thus leading us on to the next scene. I think I engaged well with this project as, firstly I turned up to every lesson, I also went round helping with anything I could in terms of the set building from helping put up the frames to scraping wallpaper off and decorating it. I think doing the workshop with the tools was a good thing because normally I wouldn't attempt to pick up a drill but now I see how easy it is to use basic tools and make basic frames and skills like that will come in handy for many things not least set building. 

When it came to filming it I tried to do different roles I hadn't done before so for a couple of scenes I helped art direct and I also tried Assistant Directing (AD). I learnt a lot from the sessions with the cinematographers because I realised how important it is for the Art Director to check through the camera also as it helps them see a better picture of what will actually be captured on video as it’s often different to what you see just looking at it. The cinematographers also have a bigger job than I thought and it takes a long time to get everything just so, like the lighting and framing etc. I also learnt a bit about the importance of the AD’s job and how they have a lot to do with keeping everything, including cast and crew, in check while on set. One of my favourite parts was helping dress Alice for the creepy woman part as I felt that with just a few skin coloured stockings it had quite an impact on how she looked and she did actually look quite weird in the film.

The group work we achieved was really good for the time scale and was also quite ambitious considering the amount of stuff we had in there and that none of us had ever really done this type of thing before. I learnt a lot about firstly making do with what you’ve got in a situation and how what the camera sees is the most important thing. 
With more time we should have considered how the green screen was going to be filmed by getting the lighting, framing and angles right so when we put the person with the background it looked less stuck on.  We also could've designed the bedroom set a bit neater because the bed looked a bit stuck on and we didn’t have enough flooring to stick around it so it looked a bit messy.

If I was to do the project again I think I would try and come up with more ideas to try out as I felt although I helped out wherever I could I didn’t really have much input towards the final thing. Usually I do come up with lots of ideas but I think because we were working in such a big group I took a step back and let more vocal people take charge. I would also like to have tried a bit of model making so I could have a play about with different materials and see what can be achieved with them. I think the people that did do this though for the film made a really good first attempt. 

I feel my strengths throughout this subject were my abilities to work with other people and be a productive team member. Also I feel, although they can be improved upon, my ideas and writing skills are good but I need to start doing more academic and other research to support them in future. I think things I need to build upon is taking charge a bit more and being confident in my own ideas and decisions and not just letting others take over. I feel the level of self research I did was all right but this is something I definitely need to start doing more of as it will help me evolve my ideas more and also give me new ones as I believe the more you learn and know about different things the better you become as a story writer and filmmaker because you have a more informed and broader knowledge.

Maya

In our last session we had a look at Maya, I had a feeling it would be slightly complicated and I'd get a bit lost and I did. I think it would be a great thing to learn though as it just gives you so much more scope when making films if you can add visual effects. We learnt some basics in the lesson like how to make a sphere and then using key frames to make it move or change size - this was done using the buttons down the left hand side and then clicking on the timeline and pressing S to put in a keyframe. 

We were also shown how to manipulate the shape, we were meant to make a balloon but I thought mine looked more like a creepy scull in the end which I quite liked. We also learnt how to add effects like fire which is quite simple as you select it from the effects tab and click the small circle next to it which brings up loads of different settings to choose how you want the fire to be. 

We were shown the render button at the top (clapper board) which shows you how the object would really look, mine wasn't working for some reason but because Maya is free for students I have downloaded it now and had a play about and I added the fire effect and could see it in the render box this time. I think if Maya wasn't free I would probably never have got round to using it again but because I have it myself now I will be more inclined to watch tutorials on it and just have a play about on it because it is a very powerful bit of software and I'd love to be able to use it even just basically.