Daniela: Diary Entry Of The Progress of 'Devil's Orphan'

9th November 2010

So far a lot has changed since the pre-production of 'The Possessed' till now. We started filming the sequences of 'The Possessed' like three - four weeks ago in one of the performance studies rehearsal rooms. We used a range of equipment to film such as a Canon EOS 7D, lights and a tripod. We used students from our class to act as some of the characters in our teaser trailer for example Lauren is the possessed child; Fenetta and Jide are the un-biological parents and Bobby is the priest who is carrying out the exorcism.

To be honest three - four weeks of filming a 30-50 second teaser trailer is a very long time, but considering the fact that we had relatively major set backs and only two days in a week to film, I think we done alright for our first attempt at filming. Some of the set backs that prolonged our filming time was getting the heavy equipment and props from the media department (north building) all the way to the performance department (south building) which was not easy. Another set back was the fact that on some days some of the actors could not film with us because they had to do their own work; if they did film with us then it was done in a rush. Setting up the room was a slow process as we had to place the props in a certain way for example sticking up all the drawings on the wall and making sure that it looked right. The room that we filmed in consisted of three walls, one wall at the front and another wall on the left and right. To begin with we stuck all the drawings on the front wall and when we set up the filming equipment we realised that the lights wouldn't move very far because of the positioning of the sockets to plug the lights. Because of this reason we had to stick the drawings on the right wall which gave us more space to film and for the lights to move further. 

Throughout the past couple of days, its come to our knowledge that calling the film 'The Possessed' is very cliche and that it gives away what the film is about. We came to a group decision, after trying to figure out new film titles, that the film will be called 'Devil's Orphan' which is more catchy and original. When we went to the editing room to see how the film for the teaser trailer was looking, we were not happy at all as most of the shots were underexposed. We also realised that some of the filming equipment such as the light stand, was visible in the shots. All of these problems and others issues, made us come to a decision that we would film the teaser trailer over again. We comprehend that  the teaser trailer due date is fast approaching; but now that we know where we went wrong and what exactly we have to do, we have told ourselves that we are going to work extra harder and be a lot more organised.

What went wrong last time that will not happen this time, was the lack of organisation and communication within the group and the actors that we needed. Before, we told all our actors on the day that they were needed and  made them get into their costumes and make up (it wasn't guaranteed that there would be enough time to film using all the actors). This time there will definitely be more communication and instead of telling the actors that we need them on the day, we will give them prior notice. We have come up with what we believe is the best method of filming the teaser trailer faster, which is by filming the scenes where the most actors are needed  so that we can get it out of the way and not occupy their time as well. We know that we have a lot of work to do but I believe and know that we will get it done and produce an excellent teaser trailer. 

Daniela Tome'              

Billy: mock-up poster

This is a simple mock-up using photoshop of what the poster may look like in the end its also a way for me to visualise the layout and practice creating effects on photoshop.

I came up with the idea for using a shadow because it can be used as a powerful tool for instance; it can be distorted to create an imposing effect much like I did in the draft, it also can describe someone or something with ought actually showing it keeping it a mystery. This idea has been used a lot throughout the horror genre a classic example is in 1922 film Nosferatu and its famous shadow sequence seen below.

I also experimented with creating the dark, hemmed-in effect that is fast becoming a tradition in modern horror posters like the ones seen below.

I have also noticed that there is a trend of using textures on horror posters to give a decayed, worn and scratched feel to both the images and text the poster for 'Survival of the dead' seen above is a very good example of this we definitely want to incorporate these details in or final product I think it will add depth substance to our work and will hopefully result in a very atmospheric poster.

I came up with the idea to put devil horns on in the girls shadow at the last minute and I think it gives the poster another dimension I definitely want to include this in the final work in a slightly more subtle way so that when people look at it for a second time they notice it and will point it out to a friend, its things like this that generate a small amount of interest about a film.

Billy Waterworth