Bumps In The Night, Evaluation – part 1

The narrative of the film• We believe ‘The Living Past’ fits the genre of horror, we have used camera, sound,

editing and music to convey this. The plot of the feature length film is about a family moving into an old house in which the girl becomes possessed by the previous resident (Alicia) who lived there with her father in the 20th century, she is anguished as her father abused her as a child; which resulted in her death (at a young age) she seeks revenge through the present resident (Isabel) possessing her and influencing her to kill her family. Therefore the past is still living. This is why we thought the title was significant in setting up the narrative of the film, another important factor was the casting and characters of the film we needed to ensure that they demonstrated certain characteristic and also what time period they were from, we did this by using various shot types e.g. a long shot of the past girl to highlight her vulnerability (when being beaten by her father) we also used costume e.g. an old fashioned styled dress for the past girl.

Here are some examples of typical horror movies we took influence from:• The haunting of Connecticuthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRJA3lN0xCQ• The Sixth Sense Trailerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9AGf66tXM• THE RINGhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLt6bUVoCQ

Costumes and PropsCostumes were a very significant element for our film.

Firstly, because Alicia played the part of the past girl and Isabel the present girl it was important to make it evident to the audience the past and the present.

There had to be a stark difference in costume to represent the different time periods; Props and mise-en-scene were old looking.

A blue shirt dress as this was common in the 20th century.

We used sepia effect on all of the past girl’s shots and also dressed her in grey bland tones, representing both her depression and the depression of the time; around 1940s.

Hollister top suggesting present day.

The girls were of a similar age as our target market, so the costume of the present girl had to be ‘on trend’ attracting the audience; allowing them to relate to the character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh_JEbgblPI

Fonts and titlesFor our fonts and titles we used ‘LiveType’ on the Macs.•Our title signifies the past child still living through the present day •Used black background to represent the dark theme of possession

For the entrance of our title at the end of the sequence we used ‘cat eyes’ as we felt that it went well with the horror genre as well as our storyline, it seems eerie and mysterious.

We had a black background conforming to the horror genre and typical horror films(see examples) we also wanted something simplistic so the main focus was on the title itself.

The Sixth Sense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhhAOqqcBFc

Halloween http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40wtsyFKlQs

Title• We chose our film to be called ‘The Living Past’ as it relates to the

theme of the past child still living through the present day, pulling spiritual tricks to possess the present day child.

• This is reflected through various shots in our opening trailer, such as the low angle shot from the girl in the past spiritually following the present day girl down the stairs, as well as the point of view shot of the present day girl looking in the mirror seeing a sudden flash of the girl in the past, which both convey our haunting theme and title.

• To help convey the meaning of our title, we used a black background to illustrate the darkness of the film, and a flash to relate to the past girls supernatural presence.

Setting and Location• Our setting and location was based in a large historic house that the new family were moving

into, which had been there for years. • We used our school mansion as the outside is old looking, and inside consists of old doors

and paintings which was perfect for our films location.• Setting is important as we needed to have an old-looking location in order to convey the

haunting affect and that the house was owned centuries ago by a previous family, which is shown through scenes of the girl from the present opening the old, crooked door, which then links onto the previous girl who shuts it back.

• This is similar to the haunting in Connecticut setting, based in a large house that is haunted by the possessed.

Introduction to Characters• Our introduction to characters is key as it is important that the audience can work out who

they are and when they are from.• When we are introduced to the girl from the past, we see her in old fashioned, floral

clothing, with her hair put back so it would therefore appear she is from a past era. This is in contrast to the introduction of the present day girl, who opens the door on the other side wearing leggings and boots with her hair down to symbolise the current day.

• Our first introduction the past father, we see him beating his own child, shouting, ‘Don’t you dare talk to me like that again!’ which highlights the story of the girl getting beaten; being the reason of her possessing the present day girl.

This is a screen grab from ‘The haunting in Connecticut’ here the protagonist is looking into a reflective door and seeing a tortured spirit, this links to the screen grab from our sequence.

How the genre of ‘horror’ is constructed

We feel that this shot of Issie (who is the present character) leaving the attic, clearly demonstrates the horror genre. All of the technical elements such as Mise En Scene, camera work and lighting work well together to deliver this scary and eerie atmosphere. The location is dark and gloomy, with dull colours and lighting, which gives the sense of it being a cold and depressing room, and that something traumatic has perhaps happened here. The camera is positioned on the floor, with the drawing in foreground. Her face is not visible to the viewer in this shot, which we hoped would make the audience feel ‘uneasy’. We took this idea from ‘Paranormal Activity’. Issie is wearing all black, but a white top. However in this shot, you can only see her black clothing, this makes it seem as though her character is lost. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TC9bKyDB5Y

Camera work and editing • When filming this ‘mirror scene’ we needed to take 3 different shots; one of Issie standing

alone followed by a shot of Issie and I and lastly Issie standing alone again. We had to make sure that the camera was in the exact same position. However, we didn’t quite manage to keep the camera in the exact position, so this had to be rectified during the editing process, to make sure that each shot flowed smoothly into the next shot. As The camera was in a different position in each shot, we cropped each shot to make sure they were framed equally. We decided to change the colour slightly in these shots, to get reflect the past and present characters being the same shot (so the shot was in colour, but dull) so we had to be extremely careful when doing this to make sure that each shot was the same. This ensured that they change from one shot to another would be as smooth and unnoticeable as possible. We feel that this shot clearly demonstrates the theme of possession as the character in the background appears as a supernatural presence, we also feel the dull tones of the shot makes it conform to the genre of horror, making us feel uneasy as the atmosphere is dark.

Sound and Music… We took influence from the others, http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=pHr_oSk57kQ the opening title sequence music is repetitive therefore building tension and creating an unsettling atmosphere, eerie piano music is a typical convention of the horror genre. We tried editing our music in garage band but decided that it should be subtle rather than have it detract from the sound effects; ‘kill them’ an overlay we used when protagonist is drawing, and also the poignant dialog. We felt these were more important as they demonstrate the theme of possession. We decided we would use minimal dialog therefore emphasising the only dialog: “Don’t you dare speak to me like that again” and “kill them” we chose these lines as being significant as they convey the two most prominent themes of our project – domestic abuse and possession. We believe that by using minimal dialog, it doesn’t reveal too much of the narrative but instead allows scope for interpretation, as it is only the first scene. It also has a greater impact as it builds tension, dialog would speed up the pace of the opener rather than build tension and suspicion. The sound of the creaky floorboards and doors when used in conjunction with the mise-en-scene highlights that the setting is in an old creepy house; a key factor in bringing together the past and the presence.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee2fR4Zebuc

Special effects…• We used special effects to represent the super natural presence of the ghost, for example

when editing we used a quick cut in the mirror, this creates an uncomfortable feeling, the audience shares the protagonists shock and fear. We used a sepia effect on the shots of the past to convey a change in time periods, this along with the mise-en-scene helps create an eerie atmosphere. The shot on the protagonist drawing has an overlay “kill them” we decided to include this as it represents the theme of possession and fits the genre of horror well. This is a screen grab from ‘the others’, the little girl has

drawn a creepy drawing of the spirits she sees, we feel this ties in well with our theme of possession, we also took influence from this concept of an unsettling drawing, seen in the screen grab from our film.