A friend and I...

[Madrigal]

As I mentioned in my intro, are very interested in filmmaking.

We don't have anything under our belts yet but we hope to do some stuff.

Anyway, we are both really into horror and of course wanted to work at making one. This weekend we decided to take a 5 minute clip of something, just to work on our camera skills. We would be using a basic sony cam but some decent editing software.

Our main idea was to take something that was seemingly unfrightening and make it frightening or at least a bit chilling using little special effects, mainly in the sense of zombies, or costumes and the like.

The basic premise, two guys are walking through the woods, as a shortcut or something, maybe a bit happy after the party that night and are telling stories that they have heard about the woods. My friend and I are big into interesting camera angles, so we want to have a lot of them, but basically, it follows us from point a to point b, with minimal lighting, though consistant lighting. Near the end of our walk we hear sticks cracking, not too disimilar from the Blair Witch Project, but we don't see anything. At the end, as far as he has described to me, which was only in school today and he did it quick, the camera then turns around and double speeds back along our path to the front, as if it is going to zoom in on somehting, like a creature, then it stops. I will have to talk to him more, but that is the main idea.

I was thinking, have some cool shots like in a tree looking down or something, and have the camera slightly lift and fall as if something is breathing.

Basically, we are looking for ideas, can anyone on here throw a few ideas into the pot to see what we can come up with. Either technical, to do with lighting, or camera, or even editing, or to do with the film itself, bottom line- we need ideas.

Thanks guys.

[Sistinas]

I dig your avatar.It looks like something you may have shot, nice!:) :D

[Madrigal]

Hey thanks, that is Nattefrost, a Black Metal musician. The picture was taken in Krakow, Poland by Peter Beste, who takes some AMAZING photos.

www.peterbeste.com

He just finished a big photo journal/interview on Norwegian Black Metal, very interesting stuff there.

[Delfino]

Hey man,

I haven't had much experience in film making but have 10 or so films planned for future production (university is the perfect place to get into it...loads of budding actors willing to get their faces out)...

Anywayz, I made a short horror film (low budget ofcourse) for my AS Media Studies course last year. It was about a killer admitting to the murder of two girls. The murders are set in a flash back which begins as the killer is talking to a police officer at a local police station and continues to show the murders. In this part of the film we had such a conviniently placed window, directly above the door that the killer makes a forced entry through, so we had like 3 angles of this guy breaking into this house, we got praised alot for that one shot alone and inevitably we got an 'A' for the coursework in general. Anyway it turns out one of the girls is the police officers daughter but you only find out at the end when the police officer and killer leave the room to put the killer in a holding cell, then the camera zooms in and looks at a family portrait on the desk of the officer.

I think the biggest hints I can give about creativity with cameras and stuff is that before you film somewhere, like you say, in a wood, is Look around, you will find the most convinient little bushes, branches, ditches, coves etc...You'll stand there looking at the perfect setting thinking "Wow...this place couldn't be any better." and will inevitably give you what you're looking for.

Another thing though, don't go crazy with the camera angles lol, you may completely blow the atmosphere of the film by inadvertantly screwing with the pace. 9-10 really great shots from obscure places, as you say, from trees and stuff, these will be subtle and won't stick out like a sore thumb, and keep the theme, atmosphere and the pace all consistant.

I wish you luck man, I'm in the same boat as you when it comes to this stuff. Its great you're working with a friend, share the work load, greater amounts of input, before long you'll have a few fims under your belt that people will love.

Take Care, Man

Delfino

[N0Hypocrites]

I'm always looking for people to work with myself in any capacity. You can check me out at:
Drunkenflesh Films
Christopher Kahler - Music For Indie Films
I do about 99% horror at the moment. It seems to be my lot in life.
CK

[ADOM]

For your lighting, will there be any power source? Out in the woods consistent lighting can get tricky. Look into those high powered spotlights and get some of the window reflectors to keep the sun out of your car to bounce them off of and diffuse them. Colored plastic Report covers make an interesting filter in a pinch. We used them on DARK ROSE: 700 YEAR ITCH and got some compliments. Be sure to hold them away from hot bulbs so they don't melt.

If you have a power source nearby, professional flood lights would be nice, but don't underestimate the usefulness of Halogen worklights (be sure to manually white balance the camera if it allows you to) or clamp lights. Again, be sure to be careful around hot bulbs.

[orez]

I can't agree with ADOM more, lighting is very important, and can totally ruin your shots if its not right. I've been down that road enough times that I've certainly learned my lesson the hard way.


never underestimate the need for proper lighting

[allmykids]

LOL!!

[ADOM]

What's so funny?

I mean it about those 500W lights though. We shot CRYING WOLF in the woods at night. We ran 200 feet of extension chord to a trailer with power and had 500W floods bouncing off of the fog. They had blue gels on them. By the time we were done half the insect life in the area had been burnt to a crisp and left crusty corpses on our gels. I feel bad for the PA who had to scrape those off.

[ThenThereWasOne]

Fortunately that's what PAs are there for. Of course it's also a step up from being a composer LOL
CK