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.

How Effects are going to be achieved in my Horror Film

If I was to make my horror film I think the best way to create the lumps on the legs would be through using special effects. I watched a tutorial on how to create a burn on the skin and even though this is different I think the materials they used could be adapted to create lumps instead. To create the burn they used Lumps gelatine to create the lumpy skin and I thought that if you just used it in blobs to create lumps, rather than spreading it out like you would to create the burn effect. The next step is then to use an acrylic or poster paint and dab it on with a sponge and I was thinking to create the lumps I could create a pink-reddish colour and dab that on over the lumps using a paintbrush or small sponge. I've had a look at a few more video tutorials and found another one for creating boils, spots and blisters which again uses gelatine and just plain flour then all you add is water and pink and blue food colouring to create a fleshy colour. This one was the best as the finished spots she created looked just how I'd like mine to look like and you can then add make up afterwards like pink eye-shadow to make it look sore around the outside. with the gelatine you can mould it into the shape you want so I could make each one look slightly different and have them different sizes. Mine will probably need to be made a bit bigger because a slug will be breaking out of them and I will them to big big enough so after the slug has come out I could put a hole in the centre of the lumps and then use red dye or paint to dab to show it bleeding and pus coming out. For the pus you could play about with different materials and liquids to try and make a liquid that's not too runny.

Video tutorial from YouTube showing how to make fake spots, boils and blisters

I think the best way to do the slugs would be to use a 3D model compositing software programme like Maya which we had a quick lesson on and also After Effects. Maya would be used to create the actual slug and then you could use After effects to animate the slugs. I think you would make one slug on Maya to start with and then duplicate it on After Effects and use the tracking tool to make each one move. Obviously there would be a lot more to it than that but I would need to get to grips with the programme a bit better by watching tutorials and having a play about or find someone that is a professional with the programmes. Slugs normally look quite similar to each other so I think you could get away with just creating one and then multiplying it to get a large group of slugs, I think the movement would have to vary throughout them though to give them a bit more unpredictability. To show the slugs growing bigger and growing teeth Maya could be used again by using the size/scale tool and key frames. I think the slugs eating the flesh on the legs would all be done using visual effects as I think it would be quicker and easier as I'm not sure how you would do it using special effects.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIoD1wJ37eQ - Fake burn tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqhddx2tvYc - Pus infected boil

300 Word Proposal of 'The Uncanny' - REVISED

300 Word Proposal: Subject of The ‘Uncanny’

Tag Line – You can’t swot the fly in your mind

Log Line: - A man enters a room where boundaries between the real and unreal start to get blurred. Things happen that he can see and hear with his own senses but at the end he is left wondering if anything that just happened was real or was he mislead by his own mind.

Short Film Synopsis -

A man exploring an abandoned house walks into a small dark room with no windows but dimly lit by an old lamp. On first glance it appears empty; he stops in the middle of the room on hearing a noise, a buzzing noise that gets louder and louder. A small black fly starts circling around his head, he tries to swipe at it but it goes faster and the buzzing is now almost deafening. Pressure builds in the man’s head until eventually he can’t take the noise and dizzying movement any longer and shouts ‘STOP’. It stops, right in front of his eyes then drops to the ground with a loud thud that echoes around the room, as it hits the ground it bursts into green smoke then is gone. 

The man cautiously walks towards a rustic full length mirror, that’s caught his eye and stares at himself; the pupils of his eyes contract and look like two small black flies. He notices a transparent black balloon floating behind him in the mirror that wasn't there before, within it a fly is buzzing around. He turns around and tries to bat the balloon away; it stays floating on the spot. He goes at it again with aggression, hitting and punching it but with every impact to the balloon the buzzing gets louder and the balloon remains there gently swaying. The man stands looking at it, half perspiring through effort, half through anxiety; it spontaneously bursts without a sound and green smoke engulfs the room. He twists away from the smoke coughing and closing his eyes tight, the buzzing stops so he slowly opens his eyes until he catches the reflection in the mirror which causes his eyes to widen in horror. The room is swarming with flies; the air so thick he can’t see the door he came in through. He braces himself to turn around and face this nightmare but as he does so all he is met with is one solitary fly which flies out the door.

300 Word Proposal on the subject of The Uncanny - Feedback

A really unusual proposal idea. Well done for the originality. The tag line is really good. The log line is a bit weak. Your writing style is clear and you make good consideration of art direction and sound as well as image. Overall I wonder if the language you use could convey a little more of the mental anguish of the man and instil a greater sense of disturbance in the reader. Otherwise really well done.

65%

After reading this feedback I have decided to make some changes to my original proposal, I will change the log line so it makes a bit more sense and try and add a few more bits to describe how the man is feeling and what he is personally going through.

Personal Project Moodboard 2 - Tone and Colour

This is another mood board I did, I feel this one is better for getting across the tone and mood of my film and the sort of colours that I want to be including and looking to achieve if it was to get made.

'Evil Dead 2' (1987, Sam Raimi)

This film is very heavy on special effects and some of the thing were very similar to what we were trying to create within our group film.
What I actually quite liked about the film is that the effects were very over the top which meant they didn't always look very realistic but I think it added to the humour of it and was entertaining from a visual aspect.

I thought the hand that had a life of it's own and was possessed could be seen as uncanny in the way that it's a very ordinary part of the body that everyone has but the thought of it taking on a life of its own and then turning against you and trying to kill you with you not having control is a scary thought.

There was also a lot of blood spurting from things and like our film there was a bit when the blood starting to trickle down the wall which reminded me of our film as that's what we tried to create. Loads of it then starts to spray out of the walls  and it looked less like blood at this point as you could see it was diluted so was just coloured water and didn't have the slightly thicker consistency of real blood which was probably a deliberate thing to add to the comedy of it as this is not a serious horror.

Another part which I linked to our own film was the part when our deer head on the wall starts laughing because one of our main themes was dead, stuffed animals which always seem to give people the creeps as they look so realistic because obviously they were real animals but now it's just the outside of them that remains. I think what makes them weirder is because they look so life like people expecting them to start moving or doing some thing, like it does is this film.
In our film Luke dressed one of the animals up in a dolls dress which I think was a nice touch and gave a weird spin on things.

Blood spurting from walls and laughing scene

500 Word Proposal - REVISED

Tag Line: With every myth lies a scarier truth

Log Line: While holidaying at Loch Ness a father and daughter find there is something sinister lurking in the depths of the Loch Ness.

Synopsis: A father treats his teenage daughter to a holiday in Scotland, renting out a cosy cabin in the woods where he and his wife stayed for their honeymoon before she died a couple of years later. While out yachting on the Loch Ness Isabelle’s father entertains her with a story about an encounter he once had with the mythical creature the Loch Ness monster. While listening to the story, Isabelle dangles her feet into the lake and catches her toe on what they both think must have been a sharp object in the water. It turns out it wasn't just a scratch at all but she has been bitten by an undiscovered species of eerily white slug, sensitive to bright light, that then burrows itself under her skin where it can breed safely shielded by the light. It is only when day turns to night that Isabelle discovers what she has been harbouring within her own body.

Isabelle tosses and turns while trying to sleep in the small wooden bed situated in the corner of the dark log cabin, her dad sleeps soundly in the bed adjacent to hers. There is a small window next to the young girls’ bed on which thick green curtains hang crookedly creating a tiny slither of moonlight that streaks across her bed.

Something is irritating the girl and she scratches her leg while half asleep, as her short bitten nails scrape over the skin she feels something unusual that provokes her to sit upright. She pushes the covers off her legs and looks down, she can see nothing except where the moonlight slices across her legs it highlights small red lumps. She leans over to switch the lamp on which reveals the lumps cover her legs completely, her face contorts in horror and she calls out to her dad. As he awakes one of the lumps burst releasing sickly green pus that drips down her leg causing the girl to recoil in disgust and screech out for her dad once more. He rushes over to her and inspects the pus filled lump that her shaking finger is pointing at. It’s not just pus that fills it, something small and an off-whitish colour surfaces from the lump and slides out down her leg, leaving a shimmering trail behind it, then drops to the floor. Frozen in terror they have no time to react before all the other lumps start to burst one by one like an unstoppable chain reaction.

The girl’s eyes widen in horror as the pus oozes out from her body and slimy white creatures begin poking out, their heads slowly snaking side to side before the rest of their body emerges and they all trickle to the floor. The ghost-like slugs writhe around and begin absorbing the green liquid that once harboured them and as they do so they grow in size and small razor like teeth become apparent, protruding outwards but barely visible against their pale bodies. The girl shoots back onto the bed as the dad cautiously steps away looking for something to grab in defence but not sure what.

Suddenly as if something had signalled them to do so the creatures simultaneously start worming their way up the overhanging bed covers towards the girl, she screams out to her dad as they leap on to her legs and tear into her lumpy skin with their blade-like teeth. She yelps out with a chilling scream that echoes around the room and starts thrashing her legs about in vain. Finally her dad snaps into action and desperately tries to pull the creatures from her but as fast as he is pulling them out they are working their way back to her legs and continuing to gouge out small chunks of her open flesh. The girl convulses around on the bed, violently kicking her legs and as she does so she knocks the curtain allowing moonlight to flood in momentarily and as it hits the feasting creatures they stop dead then all at once they move off the girl and quickly wriggle their way across the room, under the door and out into the safety of darkness. 



Visual Realisation:

I think this film would start off quite bright so the shots would have a slight overexposure to them and have a sort of white glow. My thoughts with this are I want the film to seem quite normal at the start so you don't know it's a horror from the onset and you don't know what's coming, it will appear to be just a drama. I want there to be a brightness to it so it gives just a slight sense of a slight eeriness and something not being quite right. I also want it to have a very calm feel to it so it just follows the journey of the father and daughter to their holiday destination and where they're staying is very remote so there's not really many other people that they come into contact with.
When they visit the lake it will be during early morning which I think the slight over-exposure would suit quite also giving a coldness to the shots.

The cabin will be situated close to the lake and surrounded by trees, it will have quite a minimalist feel with not many mod cons but will also have a slight cosiness to it at the same time with solid wood furniture, a real fire, thick warm furnishings a couple of old pictures on the wall.
When the horror starts the cabin will no longer have a cosy feel to it, it will seem more isolated and bare and as it's at night it will be quite dark with just the coldness of the moon slicing through. There will be one other source of light introduced in the scene where the slugs are revealed and that will be a lamp that the girl switches on and this will produce a concentrated amount of light around the girl and her bed but doesn't really light the room up much. This is so the light if focused and highlights the action going on which is the slugs.

Locations:

I think this would be a good film to shoot on location as it would enhance the atmosphere a lot more if you're actually there rather than trying to recreate it. Also the lake is a very famous and well-known one so I think you would have to shoot it there because people would recognise if it wasn't there. If it was a relatively unknown lake then I think obviously any lake would have sufficed. I did a bit of research into the Loch Ness and they need to be on a boat that allows the girl to seat on the side and dip her feat in so i had a look at what boats you can hire on the Loch Ness and the most suitable one I felt would be a yacht as that's a nice thing for a father and daughter to do together and it's not too high up that she can't sit on the side.

Personal project Proposal - Feedback

This is the feedback I was given for my proposal which after reading my work again is a very fair assessment especially as I too thought the ending was too much with both of those things going on.
After thinking about it I decided I want my film to be serious not cheesy b-movie style so I'm going to change some of the language and how I describe things. I still want it to be quite gory but done in a more sophisticated way with a serious believable story line and believable characters and the language and words I chose is key to that. I'm also changing the colour of the slugs from black to white as I think this makes more sense if they have been living in the darkness all this time and are sensitive to light because when you see most deep sea creatures they tend to be a whitish almost transparent colour. I also think this makes them seem more creepy as well because white slugs are less common than black slugs. I'm hoping with these changes it will be a much more serious and polished proposal for a film.

Previewing uncanny footage and Premier and After Effects Workshop

Today Susannah showed us a quick edit she had put together of the uncanny shoot. Obviously it wasn't near perfect but I was impressed with it as it showed what can be achieved in just a short time and also first time around when this is quite new to most people so we were trying things out for the first time to see if they worked.

We went through a few of the problems and solutions, firstly the bed from the bedroom scene didn't look like it was laying naturally because you could see where it'd been stretch to staple against the wall. I think we knew this was going to look a bit ropey from the beginning though as we had limited resources to make a realistic bed and also didn't have much time to set it up as the cinematographers were there. I liked the effect of Paul rising up from the bed though and I thought he acted it out well, if the bed and rest of the background had been spot on then this would have been a really effective shot.

Where Paul's smaller self had been green screened onto the fireplace there were a couple of problems for example bits of his arm had gone a bit transparent which I think was to do with the lighting and shadow when he was being filmed in front of the screen. He also looked a bit placed in the shot so it didnt really look like he was actually standing on the mantle piece which again is all about how it's shot considering the lighting and also the angles.

When it came to the fake hand and arm on camera you could tell they weren't real but with a bit more detail i.e skin tones, hairs etc and time taken over them they could have been a lot more realistic. The bloody oozing scab on the arm looked quite effective with the blood coming out of it but where the stuff had dried created a bit of a contrast between that and the blood coming out as you could tell it was dry and not wet and fresh how it should've looked. This is a good thing to know for next time as the art directors may need to use a different solution to make the blood effect or paint it on right before filming so it looks fresh.
Another way to get round this would be to use an image of a real arm and composite it over the top or just use visual effects more than special effects if you have the resources.


In this lesson we looked at how you link Premier to After Effects (AE) so you can add an effect to the shot - in this case it was putting the green screen footage with the background.
To start with you find the background shot you want, my first one was the close up of the fire place, then you find the green screen clip you want to use, which was Paul scratching his arm. You put the clips on top of each other, highlight both, then right click and select Replace with AE composition. This then opens up AE with the clips.




We were told to use this button to preview the footage as it renders it all first, if you were to watch without doing this it would be slow and jittery.

To get rid of the green from around the green screen shot you go onto Effects + Presets and then Keying from this I selected Linear Colour Key and I dragged it onto the image. I then changed the RGB settings on the left to Chroma and used the pipette tool to click on the image which got rid of most of the green to black instead. After you can then use the Spill Suppressor by dragging it onto the clip and then on the left use the pipette and click on the green box under Key Colour to help get rid of any fuzzy green bits that are left over and also use the Matte choker under Matte on Effects + Presets to change the softness and blending around the image.

Moodboard for 500 word Personal Proposal

This moodboard shows some of the key major elements I would want to include in my film being the slugs, the cabin and the moonlight.

500 Word Sequence Proposal

Tag Line: With every myth lies a scarier truth

Log Line: While holidaying at Loch Ness a father and daughter find there is something frightening that has been living in the murky depths of the lake and there’s no Nessy in sight.

Isabelle tosses and turns while trying to sleep in the small wooden bed situated in the corner of the dark log cabin, her dad sleeps soundly in the bed adjacent to hers. There is a small window next to the young girls’ bed on which thick green curtains hang crookedly creating a tiny slither of moonlight that streaks across her bed.

Something is irritating the girl and she scratches her leg while half asleep, as her short bitten nails scrape over the skin she feels something unusual that provokes her to sit upright. She pushes the covers off her legs and looks down, she can see nothing except where the moonlight slices across her legs it highlights small red lumps. She leans over to switch the lamp on which reveals the lumps cover her legs completely, her face contorts in horror and she calls out to her dad. As he awakes one of the lumps burst releasing sickly green pus that drips down her leg causing the girl to recoil in disgust and screech out for her dad once more. He rushes over to her and inspects the pus filled lump that her shaking finger points at. It’s not just pus that fills it, something small and black slides out onto the floor but before they have time to react and without warning all the other lumps burst one by one like an unstoppable chain reaction.

The girl’s eyes widen in terror as the gooey green pus oozes out from her body and shiny black creatures begin poking out, their heads slowly snaking side to side before the rest of their body emerges and they drop to the floor. The black slug like creatures writhe around and begin absorbing the liquid that once harboured them and as they do so they grow in size and develop two fang like teeth. The girl shoots back onto the bed as the dad cautiously steps away looking for something to grab but not sure what.

Suddenly as if something had signalled them to do so the creatures simultaneously start worming their way up the overhanging bed covers towards the girl, she screams out to her dad and they leap on to her legs and tear into her lumpy skin with their tiny sharp fangs. She yelps out with a chilling scream that echoes around the room and starts thrashing her legs about in vain. Finally her dad snaps into action and desperately tries to pull the creatures from her but as fast as he is pulling them out they are making their way back to her legs and continuing to gouge out small chunks of her broken flesh. The girl convulses around on the bed her teardrops spilling everywhere and as they do so one lands on one of the creatures which immediately begins to bubble and fizz while letting out a high pitch shriek. They throw up their hands to cover their ears as the sound is almost deafening but as the girl moves her arms to do she knocks the curtain allowing moonlight to flood in momentarily and as it hits the feasting creatures they stop dead then all at once they move off the girl and quickly wriggle their way across the room, under the door and out into the darkness. 

Films similar to my proposal

A couple of films that came to mind when I was writing my idea were Dreamcatcher (2003, Lawrence Kasdan) which has parasitic aliens in it that look a bit like giant slug type things and they have lots of teeth.



Another film is Slither (2006, James Gunn) which has space slugs that burrow themselves into peoples brains turning them into brain dead zombies.



There were parts from each film that i would be using, for instance the teeth of the slug alien in Dreamcatcher I liked but I think Slither was closer in terms of the size I wanted my slugs to be and the fact they go into peoples bodies and the amount because in Dreamcatcher they're more few and far between whereas in Slither there are loads of them. both films are different to mine though in the way that they are both based on the slugs being aliens from somewhere else but my slugs are going to be quite normal in terms of how they look and where they're from, they will be a breed of man-eating slug that has just evolved in the lake from other species of slug and water creatures fused together.


While looking for films similar to mine I came across Slugs (1988, Juan Piquer Simon) that I'd never actually heard of before. I watched it and found it was quite similar to my idea as the slugs had evolved into carnivorous slugs after being in contact with a toxic waste site that had mutated them. They also looked like normal slugs except for the fact they had big sharp teeth that could eat human flesh.


Finding this film has shown me just how hard it is to come up with an idea that is truly original because so many films have been done and there are loads that you don't even realise exist so it proves you need to do your homework and do a lot of research when coming up with an idea for a film. This is good because if there is a film already similar to yours you can think of ways of doing it differently and making it better.

Obviously if my film was to be made it would be a lot more serious and sophisticated of a horror than Slugs as Slugs was set in the 80's so had to rely a lot on special effects which are quite crude and also the acting/script is not great.

The long shots were better as you could tell they had used real slugs for shots like these and these were creepier when you could tell it was real.

This is the only close up of a slugs face and teeth in the film you could tell from this shot that the slug wasn't real.

This is a screenshot from the film when a man is trying to chop his arm off this shot looked quite fake as the arm looked really rubbery when it went to the close up. Using close ups is a popular way of showing something that isn't real because it gets round having to show the whole thing. I think they tried to mask the falseness of the limb by adding lots of detail around it like the glove and shirt and showing as little of the bare skin as possible. Special effects and visual effects have come a long way though now since the 80's and people use life-casting and prosthetic sculpting to really realistic effect.

Interesting Facts about slugs - Proposal Research

Since I wanted to base my horror around slugs I thought I'd do a bit of research into them and I found this interesting fact sheet  I chose slugs because I think they're one of the most disgusting and freaky creatures and the thought of touching one makes me go cold never mind the thought of loads of them nesting inside me.
What I also found interesting is that I wanted my slugs to have 2 vicious protruding teeth and discovered slugs actually do have thousands of teeth which I didnt realise, I knew they ate plants and leave marks where they've been munching but never really pictured them having teeth. I thought it would be could to change it from having teeth used for eating plants and to give them teeth which are capable of eating into human flesh.
They also have green blood which gave me the idea for them to emerge from a sickly-green pus as yellow-green makes people think of things that are not very pleasant like sometimes sick, snot and slime in films is nearly always shown as being green. Green or an off yellowy-green is a colour that people associate with something not being quite right or not functioning properly which again links to the uncanny because people are repulsed and scared of things that aren't quite right or aren't behaving/functioning in the usual manner.


This is an extract taken from an article I read a while ago it's about a white slug that's been discovered in Wales and is carnivorous which is actually unusual for slugs, I like the description they use for its teeth about being blade-like and sucking in like spaghetti. I think it sounds like something from a horror film yet they actually exist and are living in Wales and probably many other places.

'Carnivorous slugsUnlike most slugs, the Ghost Slug is carnivorous and kills earthworms at night with powerful, blade-like teeth, sucking them in like spaghetti. It has no eyes, is completely white, and lives underground, squeezing its flexible body into cracks to get at the worms.' 

The slug’s blade-like teeth (total width 5mm) copyright National Museum Wales

Did you know...

• Only 5% of the slug pop­u­la­tion is above ground at any one time. The oth­er 95% is un­der­ground di­gest­ing your seed­lings, lay­ing eggs, and feed­ing on roots and seed sprouts.
• A slug’s blood is green.
• Most Brit­ish slugs eat rot­ting ve­get­a­tion, but a few are car­ni­vor­ous.
• Slugs do play an im­port­ant role in eco­logy by eat­ing de­com­pos­ing ve­get­a­tion.
• A slug lays 20-100 eggs sev­er­al times a year.
• Slug eggs can lay dormant in the soil for years and then hatch when con­di­tions are right.
• Gast­ro­pods form the second largest class in the an­im­al king­dom, the largest be­ing the in­sects.
• Slugs are herm­aph­rod­ite, hav­ing both male and fe­male re­pro­duct­ive or­gans.
• Slugs have been present in the Brit­ish Isles since the end of the last ice age.
• In fa­vour­able con­di­tions a slug can live for up to 6 years.
• A slug is ba­sic­ally a mus­cu­lar foot, and the name ‘gast­ro­pod’ lit­er­ally means stom­ach foot.
• Un­like snails that hi­bern­ate dur­ing winter, slugs are act­ive whenev­er the tem­per­at­ure is above 5°C.
• A slug is es­sen­tially a snail without a shell.
• Slugs used to live in the ocean, which is why they still need to keep moist.
• One in­di­vidu­al field slug has the po­ten­tial to pro­duce about 90,000 grand­chil­dren.
• Brit­ish garden­ers use over 400 bil­lion slug pel­lets every year.
• It’s been es­tim­ated that an acre of farm­land may sup­port over 250,000 slugs.
• Re­search has shown that the av­er­age UK garden has a pop­u­la­tion of over 20,000 slugs and snails.
• A cu­bic metre of garden will on av­er­age con­tain up to 200 slugs.
• A slug’s slime en­ables it to glide without dif­fi­culty over glass shards, or even the edge of a razor blade.
• Slugs have the cap­ab­il­ity to re­pro­duce by them­selves, al­though a mate is pre­ferred.
• When picked up or touched, the Black Slug will con­tract into a hemi­spher­ic­al shape and be­gin to rock from side to side. This be­ha­viour con­fuses pred­at­ors.
• Slugs leave their own in­di­vidu­al scent trail so they can find their way home.
• A slug’s slime ab­sorbs wa­ter, which is why it’s nearly im­possible to wash it off your hands.
• A slug’s slime con­tains fibres which pre­vents it from slid­ing down ver­tic­al sur­faces.
• A slug smells with its body.
• Bri­tain is home to around 30 spe­cies of slug.
• A slug can stretch out to 20 times its nor­mal length, en­abling it to squeeze through the smal­lest of open­ings.
• A slug has ap­prox­im­ately 27,000 teeth – that’s more teeth than a shark.
• Like sharks, slugs routinely lose and re­place their teeth.
• When a slug loses one of its sens­ory tentacles it grows an­oth­er, usu­ally with­in a few months.
• Vin­eg­ar is a good in­gredi­ent for slug sprays, and for re­mov­ing slug slime.

Source:

 Slug-Facts [Internet] http://www.slugoff.co.uk/slug-facts/facts - Accessed 31/3/2013

Wildlife Extra [Internet] http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/ghost-slug728.html#cr - Accessed 31/3/2013

Proposal Inspiration

When writing my proposal I wanted to think of something that was creepy but also based on things that really happen because I think the best ideas originate from what is real because the fact that something like that could or does actually happen makes something seem even scarier. I got some of the ideas from watching things on TV and reading things on the Internet. The first thing that gave me an initial idea was when I watched a programme called Easter Eggs Live which was a programme featured over Easter and was focused on watching different eggs hatching and giving people information on different animals and how their eggs and hatchlings behave. One that stood out to me was there was a species of toad and the eggs end up going beneath the skin on the toads back and then when the eggs hatch they have to push through the skin to get out which I thought was quite weird so this gave me the idea for the slugs burying themselves under the skin until they've grown and ready to emerge. I then got the idea of the slugs turning on the girl (that gave life to them in a sense) and trying to eat her from seeing spiderlings hatch out of eggs and then eating their mother because she sacrifices herself to give them food and more chance of survival.  

I'm really interested in nature and wildlife and I think some of the most weird and creepy ideas can originate just from observing the natural world.

'The female releases 60-100 eggs, which are fertilized by the male and then embedded in the skin of the female’s back by the male’s movements. After implantation the eggs sink into the skin and form pockets over a period of several days, eventually taking on the appearance of an irregular honeycomb. The larvae develop through the tadpole stage inside these pockets, eventually pushing out from the membrane on the mother’s back as fully developed frogs.'

Sources:

http://scottthong.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/freaky-frog-reproduction/ - Accessed 30/3/2013

Uncanny Project - Second Shoot

The second shoot was centred around filming the green screen parts of the film, which made it a bit easier in terms of set as we didn't need it as it was all filmed in front of the green screen.
The first thing we filmed was the part for the bedroom scene which was Paul - the little guy getting knocked off the fireplace so we had to do a few different shots of him scratching his arm and then jumping forward for the bit where the book would be knocking him off. The arm scratching was to mimic that of what he does when he's in bed scratching his arm because he is smaller doppelgänger and he scratches his arm because later in the film he realises there is a bug under his skin. We got mid and long shots of Paul from different angles as well to cover having to then place him on the fireplace during the edit because if filmed wrong it might not look very convincing when we then transport his image onto the fireplace. We also placed a mattress for Paul to fall on so he could convincingly look like he was falling. Another thing that Paul the director and the camera man needed to take into consideration was where Paul was looking because his eye-line needed to be at the right level for looking at his larger self and also looking behind at the book coming towards him so he needed to judge where to look. We wont know if this is right until we put the image of him into the fireplace shot when editing.

We then filmed the crazy woman chopping scene so the art directors set up the table with the potatoes, cooking dish,  chopping board and chopping implements which were a metal scraper and saw. The potatoes had lots of sprouty bits which I thought was good and looked a bit like twisted fingers which linked to the fact that she would also be chopping fingers off a hand. Having the scraper and saw as well for the things to chop was I think worked well as it helped to make the character look even madder that she uses these sort of tools to chop with.
She started off by chopping the potatoes and placing them in the dish, Paul then sat down at the table and we took a shot of Ali (crazy woman) about to cut one of Pauls fingers off with pliers. We then swapped Pauls real hand for the fake one so she could actually chop the fingers off. Inside the hand was a tube which was fed down Pauls sleeve so out of shot someone could squirt the fake blood down it which would start to spurt out as Ali was cutting the fingers of the hand. I think this worked well but we had a bit of a problem with cutting the fingers off because the hand was made out of rubber I think which was hard to cut through with the scraper, a couple of us suggested using the saw instead which was a bit better and then finally she used the pliers again to pull the fingers off. This was something to learn from as we know for next time to use a different material if making a hand that needs to be cut up.

I think what will be one of the best shots from this scene though will be when the cut off fingers are in the dish with the chopped up potatoes because when looking at it I thought it looked more gruesome and realistic when they were in there then when they were being cut off.

For the last part which involved Alice acting out a 'Jacobs ladder' scene I was one of the art directors so me and Luke helped Susannah dress Alice in a creepy costume. At first she had a cream coloured corset that looked a bit like a straight jacket on which I thought looked good but it was on over her jacket which ruined it a bit so I suggested she take the jacket off and put it back on so she had more of a smoother seamless outline and then I asked her to see what the stockings looked like on her hands as I thought it might look weird with no defined fingers and also add to the smooth outline of her body. We then used stockings to put over her face and head which pulled on her eyes a bit which looked creepy and made it look like she had no hair accept at the back of her head which again added to that look of smooth and roundness of the character as her head looked bald with just a bit of crazy messed up hair spurting out the back.

she then had to move her head from side to side so this could be sped up in post and look like she was losing her mind or something. Susannah then asked her to crawl backwards as she said it would look good when reversed because the body movement would look unnatural and her hair would look like its not following the conventions of gravity.
I enjoyed doing this scene as I like being creative and it was a weird scene to plan. If we had had more time I would have liked to experiment even more with costumes and also make up for the actors. I think we did well with what we had though and it just shows it's not about having a big budget but using your mind and being creative by making the most out of what you've got. I think it applies to all aspects of film as well that is the imagination, creativity and problem solving are some of the most important things not having the most expensive camera or props etc.

Mike Kelley: The Uncanny

This is one of Mike Kelley's pieces which is part of an exhibition, The Uncanny, in Tate Liverpool.
He is a sculptor, performance and installation artist based in LA and is described as someone who ..."has dissected the moral and cultural conventions and practices of contemporary society with deadpan humour in performances, installations, architectural models..."
In this exhibition there are a number of polychrome figurative sculptures "that embody the feeling of the uncanny through their scale and use of colour, form and material". As you can see the model above of the leg is extremely life like in every way. His pieces relate to the idea of the 'double' in the subject of the uncanny and how things that look very familiar or real aren't real or are a copy of the real thing - 'the realistic representation of the human figure suspended between life and death.'
The exhibition contains anatomical models, wax figures, animatronic puppets and mounted animals which are all things that evoke a sense of the uncanny as they look superficially very real.

"Sigmund Freud described the uncanny as ‘a hidden, familiar thing that has undergone repression and then emerged from it’. In The Uncanny, Kelley explores memory, recollection, horror and anxiety through the juxtaposition of a highly personal collection of objects with realist figurative sculpture."

Source:

Tate [Internet] http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/mike-kelley-uncanny/mike-kelley-uncanny-room-guide-readymade-and - Accessed 15/3/2013

Uncanny Project - First Shoot

Today we had the 6 hour shoot which was to predominantly film the bedroom scene with the guy drifting out of the bed. For the first 3 hours we also had the assistance of the cinematography group who were in charge of filming it and setting up the lighting.
ur first job was to make sure the bedroom set was ready and to assemble the bed covers onto the wall and put lino wooden flooring around it to make it look like it was on the floor and not a wall.

I also got to learn a little bit about cinematography as I'm not taking that as a skill, and I think it is useful to see the processes they have to go through because being a director, something I am interested in, you need to know how much time you need to allow for filming and how long processes might take like art direction or camera. With camera or cinematography there is certainly a lot more to it then just white balancing, putting it in the right position then shooting they were sorting out the focus, checking the light levels, setting up the track and the lighting and also using reflectors to get the right level of light for different shots. It seemed quite a delicate and long process trying to get everything right and opened my eyes to how long each shot must take when doing a professional feature length film.

A few of us were in charge of the art direction for this scene so we had to work together putting the stuff up and then checking it through the camera to make sure it looked good in the frame. We were limited with props and time so it was a bit of a rushed job but I think we did our best with what we could. One of the main things I learnt from this first scene was that the art director needs to check it through the camera as well because that's the most important thing as it is all going to been seen and shot through the perspective of the camera and there's no point in making a set look all pretty if it doesn't look like that through the camera.

Within the group we all took turns doing the different roles - Director, AD (Assistant Director) and Art Director/s so some times we weren't needed. I thought this would have meant people would be sitting around and it would have been all over the place but I think it actually went quite smoothly and because we were working quite quickly, as time was limited, we were never sat around too long and everyone was helping each other out.

In our own personal projects there's never usually enough people to need an AD so it was interesting to get just a small insight to what their job is and they do have quite an important role because they have to keep everything in check and push people to get ready so it seems like it is a very hands on job.

When reading about 1st AD Chris Newman, who has been a 1st AD on films including 'Love Actually' and 'Sleepy Hollow', he said that "Being an assistant director is a jack-of-all-trades job. On a film set everybody has better knowledge about his or her own speciality than you do, whereas you know a little bit about everybody's job. You have to make educated guesses to see you through - and that is the difficult bit."
Also from looking at How to Film School website it seems the AD has a lot of responsibility from the onset of a production as they not only help with the actual shoot but are there right through dealing with the script stages and much more in-between.

I carried out this role for one of the scenes and I learnt what an AD has to say on set before a take to make sure crew and cast are ready and also to keep things moving.
One thing we didn't get told to say but I read somewhere is that sometimes the AD will say 'Waiting on..' so that the crew and director will know who we're still waiting for before they can start rolling.
They may also say 'final checks please' which means people should do any last minute adjustments if they need to.
Some AD's may say 'lock up' or lock it down' to make sure nothing else interupts when just about to go for a take.
They will then say 'quiet on set' which indicates they are about to go for a take so everyone needs to stop what they're doing and be quiet.
They will then say 'roll camera' and 'roll sound' or 'turnover' which signals both camera and sound to start rolling. The sound recordist should then reply with speed to confirm the sound equipment is running at the correct speed and then the camera operator will shout set so they know the camera is rolling.
It is then the job of the Director or sometimes the AD to say action.
Afterwards the AD should check with the director if they were satisfied with that take if not the AD might say 'going again' or if everything has been successful they will say 'moving on' or 'next scene'.



After filming the bedroom scene the cinematography group left so we were in charge of camera and lighting for the next scene which was the bleeding walls. In preparation we had to put up four grey flats, using the A-frames and weights to steady them, once they were in position holes were drilled into the top of them for the blood to be squirted through. While this was being done, others were working on mixing up the fake blood concoction and putting it into syringes to be squirted through. The rest of the group were getting the camera ready and preparing the lighting. Once we were ready most of the group had to go behind the walls so we could squeeze the blood through so that it would trickle down and seem like the walls were bleeding. 

When we'd finished I went round to look at it and was a little disappointed with how it looked because the blood had just trickled down in a long thin line so it wasn't very effective on camera. We discussed it afterwards and said that if we were to do it again we would have used a different technique like having some sort of guttering rigged at the top and pouring it from there or maybe could have just carefully tipped it down the wall straight from a jug so more would flow at once making it look more effective. I'm glad we did it though as it was good to try it out and then learn how we could do it better next time.

Sources:

http://www.creativeskillset.org/film/stories/production/article_3410_1.asp


http://howtofilmschool.com/working-as-a-1st-assistant-director/