Production: Organizing our footage

This blog post contains the technology and apps that my team and I (Kellie) used to complete our filming project. This blog was made by Kellie.

Technologies & Applications Used

WhatsApp

Our main form of communication was through WhatsApp. We talked about props, costumes, filming dates, times and the location for our shoot in a group chat that Kristine made. 

Camera App

Since our project genre is horror (found footage), we used our camera app on our iPhone's instead of an advanced camera because we wanted the film to look very realistic and a bit unclear. The film is meant to make the audience feel uneasy and scared, so with low quality footage and filters that will be added later on in the editing process, this will help create that tone. 

Photos App & Shared Album

Since we were using our phones to film, we had a limited amount of storage to use. To fix this problem and help fasten the process of sharing all of our footage and behind the scenes pictures later on, Maisie created a shared album in the photos app. This allowed us to have one place where we can view and keep adding in new files throughout the filming day.CapCut

The app that our editor, Maisie, has decided to use is CapCut. It has a lot of helpful templates, filters and effects on it. Maisie is also familiar with it and has used it before, so this will help make the editing process a lot easier for her.

Google Docs

A large part of our planning work was done on Google Docs, we used it for our script writing, filming schedule, statement of intent, location scout, risk assessment and our dominant reading. Not only does my group and I find it useful and convenient, but we do a lot of our work in class using this app. Google form

A part of our blogposts was to receive audience feedback, we decided to create a google form because we thought it would be the easiest way to collect it. 

Reflection: This blog was made by my team member Kellie so I would say this was an easy task because I did not really contribute much to it.

Post-Production: Editing

Here is our editing process along with some explanation that my team members Maisie & Kristine created. Maisie helped put the clips together and designed the sound effects, while kristine added glitches and enhanced the footage.

Software❀ᮬᰰུ

To begin with, I chose CapCut for this project because it is easy to use and has all the tools I need. It lets me add transitions, text, sound effects, and filters. Our opening scene needs a variety of effects and good audio, and CapCut makes that simple. It also lets me save my video in high quality without needing expensive software. 

Introduction text• *₊°。

This is our first draft of our introduction text to our opening scene. We wanted to inform our audience about the occurrences before the footage was found. To do this, we included the date the teenagers were reported missing, how, and what happens next after a certain amount of time. 

This is our final draft. There are some changes that I made. First of all, I changed the font of the text to "Creato Display". The reason for this is because we wanted to make our opening scene look a little more modern. Since the font we used before this was "Typewriter", it seemed really old and outdated, which didn't quite fit with our time line (2019). 

Secondly, we decided to slightly change up the words and align them below each other (in one screen). We used shorter sentences to make it more intense and nerve wrecking. Each of the sentences appear in different time stamps, one after another. 

This is how it turned out like. I'm really satisfied with the results. In my opinion, the "Jitter" effect I added played a big role in making the text look unsettling because it resembles flickering lights, which in general seems creepy. Additionally, the "Fade In" effect I added in the beginning of every sentence created a smooth entrance. The cherry on top is the static noise in the background. The best part about it is when it gradually gets louder and more distorted towards the end, building up suspense. 

Turns out, Mr. Nick still had revisions that caused us to change certain things from our video. First of all, he suggested us to get rid of the "Jitter" effect. He commented that it looked unusual because all three sentences weren't 'jittering' at the same time, so he advised us to just completely get rid of it. Additionally, he also commented that the font we chose was too cliche. Therefore, he advised us to select any serif font of our choice. We decided to settle with a font called "Apple Garamond". I think it looks okay, I don't really know how to feel about it. It just looks more modern, and I do have to agree it feels more like 2019 with this font. This is the FINAL results of my part (without effects and filters yet). 

Zoom ins & outs₊˚.  𐦍༘⋆

As shown in the video, I implemented some "Zoom In" and "Zoom Out" to make it clearer that the cameraman is using a camera to record the whole thing. It makes it feel more realistic. I did this manually in CapCut using keyframes. 

The two white diamond shaped icons that I circled are called keyframes. These are what I used to create the "Zoom in" and "Zoom outs". How I did it:

1. Place a first keyframe on where I want the Zoom in/out to start

2. As shown in the picture on the right, I then click on the keyframe and adjust the position until I reach the Zoom in/out I want

3. Then I add another keyframe on where I want the Zoom in/out to end

4. Lastly, I click on the keyframe and adjust to return the position back to normal

Note: the reason why I did this manually instead of using the effects from CapCut is because I wanted to make it look more realistic. It looks more shaky and unstable when I did it myself, which is what I was looking for. Using the Zoom in/out effect from CapCut made it look too smooth. 

Background noiseᗢ₊˚✧

In most found footage movies, we can hear a slight background noise that sounds like a blowing air conditioner. Sometimes, we can hear the noise very clearly, and it usually makes the movies seem more realistic. This is because the overall audio (of the characters talking, etc) is meant to sound unclear, unlike usual movies with good sound quality. An example of this is shown in the clip above from a found footage movie called "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, 2015). 

This is a little funny, but this was suggested by my friend, Gusde. To recreate that background noise, he suggested that I search up "air conditioner sound" on YouTube and use it as my background noise. I thought it was a really good idea so I did end up using it. 

This was my opening scene before the background noise. If you pay attention, it sounded too quiet and silent.

Then, this is our opening scene with the background noise. As you can hear, it sounds a little noisier, which is what I was aiming for. I screen recorded a minute of the video from YouTube and extracted the sound to CapCut. Additionally, I did some adjustments to it (increased the volume and made it sound muffled). I really like how it turned out.

Knocking sound effect𑁍.ೃ࿔*:･

This is a YouTube video of a scary door knocking sound effect. Our plan was to layer the knocking sound for a more scarier and intense effect. We figured that if we tried making knocking sound effects on set (during shooting) it wouldn't sound very loud/creepy, so we decided to use a sound effect instead. 

This is our video without the sound effect. We purposely did not manually make sound effects on set and had our actor (Lamiya) pretend that she heard a loud knocking sound and proceed to react to it. 

This is our video with the sound effect. As you can hear, it definitely sounds like aggressive knocking because that's what we were trying to achieve. If the knocking sounded less angry, it wouldn't have felt scary/shocking. I made sure to increase the volume a little more from the original audio that I extracted from YouTube to make it sound even more frightening. 

Extra music/audio𖤓 ⋆⁺₊

1. 

This is a scene from the found footage horror movie "V/H/S 94". When watching this specific scene, me and Kristine thought the scary audio used for this scene sounded really good and that it would fit a certain scene in our video. Hence, I screen recorded this specific scene from the movie and extracted the audio to CapCut. 

This is our video without the sound effect. Due to the knocking, the silence still did give off an eerie feeling, however it wasn't enough for me. After watching "V/H/S 94", it inspired me to use the same sound effect to make the moment of silence turn into something more bone-chilling.

This is our video after I added the audio. I really like how it turned out, because it made the scene even more eerie. I made sure to fade the audio out near the end so that it sounds smooth and natural. 

2. 

While editing our video, me and Kristine accidentally came across this audio when searching for another type of audio. Weirdly enough, despite what it is (wheezing/asthma sounds), it sounds really creepy, almost like a whale. That's when we came into an agreement that we can make use of this audio in a specific scene. 

This is our video without the wheeze audio. As you can see, our actor (Lamiya), looks into the camera after realizing that something has touched her feet. I thought that we can make this scene more horrifying by adding a sound effect to emphasize her near danger/death. 

This is our video with the wheeze audio. In my opinion, this is way better than our video without the audio. All I did was I screen recorded the YouTube video and extracted the audio into CapCut. I played with the volume a little bit to my liking so that it gives off the effect I was aiming for. I'm really happy with how it turned out, as it made this scene seem more unnerving. 

3. 

I found this sound effect from CapCut. I used this for the intro and outro text. The reason why I picked white noise specifically is because it reminds me of a broken radio. A broken radio has always sounded scary to me, so I decided to add it in the background as the texts show up. 

4. 

This is the last scene of our project, which is where Lyla gets dragged by the evil entity. On this part, I obviously thought that we needed an extra terrifying screaming scene to layer on top of our original clip to make it sound bone-chilling. Kristine helped me research and found a screaming audio that we both liked. She then screen recorded and sent it to me. This is a clip of our video without the audio layering. As you can hear, it sounds super awkward and ridiculous even. 

This is the scene with the audio layering. As you can hear, it sounds so much scarier and almost ear piercing from how loud it is. I did this on purpose by extracting the audio from the screen recording Kristine gave and increasing the volume even more. I really liked how it turned out, as it transformed our actor's (Lamiya's) scream into something more creepy and unsettling, clearly showing that she's in big danger (about to die). 

Black screen𑁍࿔̥̊

In this part, we aimed to create a hermeneutic code. This idea was suggested by Mr. Nick, where he advised us to show a black screen with the sound playing over it before it actually shows the clip. This is a form of hermeneutic code because it is meant to leave the audience questioning. "What's happening?" or something along those lines. How I did this:

1. Unlink the clip and the audio so that they separate

2. Adjust the audio with the black screen so that the timing is perfect by the time it shows the actual video

Title card⋆˚࿔

This is a rough draft of how our title card looks like in my part of editing, before adding in transitions and effects. Kristine will be in charge of that, however I was only in charge of adding the text and adjusting the timing. I managed to make the title card last for around 5-7 seconds, which was fortunately longer than expected. The font that I used for this is called "1942 report". I really like the scary and uneasy vibe it gives off. 

After getting the clips from my team member (Maisie), I've decided to help with the glitch effects. I used an app called Video Star because it offers better features and  more realistic effects than CapCut. Although the effects I will be using are paid, I have been using this application and its paid version since 2018. This application is only available on mobile phones so I had to edit the footage on my phone.

First I will introduce you the 3 youtube videos that I've used for sound effects and glitches. 

The first thing that I did was to enhance the text introduction. I used 2 Video Star effects that helps create the mixture of chaos or threat from the jitter and build the eerie tension from the flickers.

Next I decided to start the found footage using the third Youtube link as a turn-on glitch effect. I used the Blend Background feature to blend both the glitch and footage making them look seamless together.

I used the Glitch D8 effect in Video Star because it looks more realistic and ensures it doesn't resemble the opening glitch. I also used the Jerky effect to enhance the laggy illusion, making the glitches feel more chaotic. I intensified the chaos to reflect the scene's context, where Drew Ditches a conversation because he didn't like how mature Lyla was acting. I also used the same Youtube link but looked for a quieter glitch audio to help intensify the glitch effect.

The next scene is the fake jump scare scene and where the glitches build up. I used the same method as before but chose a different audio to differentiate the glitches. I used the second youtube link that I added. But be cause I wanted to really intensify the scene, I increased the speed so the Jerky and the glitch was way more intense. The scene then cuts to a low-angle shot, and the glitches continue. I used the same method with Glitch D8 and Jerky to enhance the long "realism" take and maintain immersion.

There were also a few small glitches, where I combined Glitch D8 and used the this youtube link for glitch audio to enhance the error effect. Overall, the glitches were used to show the audience that this supernatural force is now taking control over the camera and them.

The big glitch in this scene had a lot of effects applied.

First, I added an additional glitch to enhance the overall effect, the more glitches the more intense it becomes. Then, I combines the first and third audio to create a more violent, eerie sound. I also added a shocking effect to make the scene feel more intense.

Even though it feels messy, I wanted the audience to experience a creepy, distorted audio that would make this sound unforgettable.

After all the glitches, we see the same glitch I used for the intense moment, but this time, it intensifies the pitch black screen rather than the scene itself. This makes the audience feel like they are merely watching something, reinforcing the idea that they are not actually int he situation creating a hermeneutic code for them. You also hear the audio of Carrie asking if Drew is okay.

We then get a small glimpse of Carrie since she told Lyla to hold the camera. I still used Glitch D8 and Jerky to intensify how serious the problem and the situation had become. I also used the same audio effects and intensified Glitch D8 combining it with the third Youtube link. This highlights the similarities between what Carrie and Drew encountered, the mysterious sound and glitches

Using the same technique with a small glitch effect and the same audio form the third YouTube link, the scenes shifts to Lyla on the floor desperately searching for the camera as its her last hope.

Then, I used the same Glitch A2 effect combines with a pitch black screen after the screaming scene to conclude the found footage scene. This keeps the intensity high as if the scene felt like a pure relief, viewers might stop watching. But with a sudden blackout, it creates a hermeneutic code, making them question what just happened and keeping them engaged.

In the end, I used a non-diegetic sound to enhance the intensity of the text title with this audio. I used sound: ROOM 237.WAV

I decide dot add a zoom-in effect where the text moves closer, further intensifying the ending. This not only builds tension but also leaves viewers with more questions about the book and what actually happened, drawing deeper into the mystery.

After getting approval by my teacher, I continued the next step which was colouring. I used 3 different tools to help with my colouring. They also carry meaning that enhances the overall indeed message.

The Vignette Pro effect helps enhance the darkness of the scene while creating the illusion of an eye shape, reinforcing the idea that we we seeing things from a specific point of view, This detail adds to the immersive experience, making the moment feel more personal and intense,

The Gloom colour plays a role in bringing the wood texture to life, making it appear richer and more detailed, since the attic is a part of this storyline. This is not only added depths to the visual but also strengthens the atmosphere akin the setting feel more real and engaging for the audience.

The sharpening effect helps emphasise key details, making them standout with a crisp, serious tone. This effects heighten the intensity of the scene, drawing viewers into the unsettling atmosphere. I also applied sharpening to the text, further to ensure that its message is felt as mush as it it seen.

Reflection: I know how ward kristine and maisie worked on this because I was on a call with her and she did not sleep and so did I and with all the pressure she still denied my help so She did really great on this and While she was doing this I was just doing my blogposts.

Production: Behind-the-Scenes

This post is about my group and I's production process, more specifically our behind-the-scenes. I will be talking about my group members roles and showcasing the pictures and I will also be writing about our problems and solutions while filming.

Dominant Reading

Group: Miya, Mei, Kris, Kellie

dominant reading

 Heres our blog of my team's dominant reading for our film opening scene project

This is just a quick catch up session that we did as a group. We thought it would be a good idea to check what our intended dominant readings are for the different things being represented in our film opening. We have recently learned about Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory with Dominant, Oppositional, and Negotiated readings. For our media text to be successful, we want to make sure the message is clear and able to reach the correct audience. Below we will discuss our intended readings, and compare them to the intended readings we made in our Statement of Intent earlier on in the project. It will be interesting to see if our ideas have evolved. 

	List	Our intended  Dominant Reading	How we will achieve this with technical elements
Individuals	Drew Lyla Carrie	Drew: Drew is a jerk. He’s unserious, mean and stupid. He’s the main reason why everyone ended up meeting their demise Lyla: The innocent, wise character who is a slight coward. Carrie and Drew think she is “boring” because she’s too careful and wary. Carrie: Compared to Lyla, she is basically on the same page as Drew. Reckless, but also rational. She likes to have fun, but knows when to back down when things get bad.	Drew: We made Drew wear casual clothes that resembled a bold, wild male teenager (white t-shirt & short pants).  We also made our actor, Panji, perform as natural as possible because we figured it’d be better if he acted like himself while improvising his lines. Drew and Panji have similarities in terms of personality, which is one of the reasons why we chose Panji to act as Drew.  Lyla: We made Lyla wear dark blue clothes along with short pants to resemble innocence and sadness. In addition to that, we asked our actor, Lamiya, to tie her hair back because it emphasizes the boring character Lyla is (she’s very tense and serious). Lastly, just like how we asked Panji, we also asked Lamiya to go crazy with her lines and encouraged her to improvise. This way, her screams and shouts sound much more real, making it seem like the supernatural things are happening for real.  Carrie: We made Carrie use a pink t-shirt, followed by long denim jeans. We chose the color pink because pink is a mixture of red and white. Red resembles boldness and white resembles innocence. When combined together into the color pink, Carrie can be seen as a character who is bold, but also pure at the same time. Just like the other two actors, we also asked Kellie (our actor) to improvise her lines to fit her character better. This way, she’ll feel more comfortable as Carrie. Lastly, we asked her to let her hair fall loose. This is to represent her as someone bold and confident, unlike Lyla.
Social group	Teenagers  (1 boy and 2 girls)	Teenagers are often very curious about things. They are at the age where they explore and take risks and most of the time, they are doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Around this age, teens get exposed to peer pressure, where some get involved in things they do not want to be a part in so we showcased that with drew dismissing lyla’s plead to stop everything and go back down and somewhat forcing her into staying upstairs where afterwards everything goes wrong and lylas should’ve went downstairs. We wanted to also showcase teenagers getting curious and meddling with things they have no knowledge about that could potentially endanger them through how they started exploring the spooky attic-getting curious about the mysterious book with witchcraft writings that they should've left alone.	MeS:  Costume: The characters are all wearing very casual clothes since they are at home anyway, for example Lyla (just a blue sweater and a pair of shorts) symbolising innocence and fear. She has her hair up in a low ponytail as well basically implying that she does not try much for her appearance, Drew (beige pants and a plain white shirt) symbolising that he’s dense and has no creativity and is shallow. Carrie (pink shirt and blue jeans) symbolising that she's feminine and confident.  Performance: the acting for the characters are very immature, especially Drew since he’s basically a trouble maker and peer pressuring his friend Lyla. We tried to incorporate both types of teenagers, immature vs mature and troublemaker vs goody two shoes and such with Drew & Lyla. Lyla’s character is very anxious when she feels that she’s getting into some trouble.  Other: instead of using actual flashlights like normal people when going into a dark space or an attic, we made the characters use their iphones to be able to see for flashlight. I think this plays a big role in showcasing that our characters are teenagers because you rarely see a teenager without their phones in their hands.
Places	Haunted Attic	The attic was used to build the frightening suspense and to help create	MeS: To make the attic look more old and dirty, we used cardboard boxes to make the place look messier and isolated which we could imply to audiences that there is so much escapism.  We used only furniture and items we found lying around from the attic to help create the illusion of an old / unused attic. Items that standed out in our set included some old VHS tapes. Since our big sub-genre is found footage, incorporating the tapes helps create a connection to the the producers and to the audiences. We also decided to use the teddy bear in the shot as a doll prop. Dolls are very well known in the world of horror because they create a very uncanny effect which can send a message to the audience that the place is very unsettling.  We decided to turn off the lights to help create an eerie vibe to the audience to create a more mysterious situation. The use of flashlights creates attention to the audience to focus on where the flashlight points at. This can lead to glimpses of what might be lurking which heightens the sense of fear. There were windows in the attic which revealed too much light. This destroys the realism of a dark attic since there's still daylight passing through the set. Hence, we slightly struggled to maintain the dark atmosphere and had to depend on editing to create a darker surrounding.
Events	Disturbing supernatural occurrences can lead to karma	The message that we wanted to convey is to always be respectful when interacting with supernatural beings. The teenagers in this project found an old book with rituals written in it, and instead of doing the right thing by leaving it alone, they decided to mock it. This led to consequences that they had to face.	To help the audience feel the severity of the situation, the camera was filming through Carrie’s point of view 90% of the time and we used close up, shaky camera shots that felt more immersive to the audience.
Overall Message	Don’t meddle in with things you don’t understand. Trust your gut, and sometimes it’s better not to be curious.

 

How are these similar or different from your Statement of Intent?

Differences: 

• We initially wanted to incorporate a scene including another group of teenagers (2 crew members) who eventually discovered the footage, but later due to the time limit, we decided to cut that out. 

• Our initial supernatural item was a cursed board game but then we eventually changed it to a cursed book found in the abandoned attic.

  
  

Similarities: 

• We decided to keep the demographic and psychographic target audience.

• We still incorporated teenagers as our main characters.

• We still kept the original traits and characters of the teenagers the same.

• We kept our overall dominant reading: The supernatural world is not something to mess with and sometimes it's better not to be curious

reflection: this dominant reading was done by everybody in the group but im not the one who edited it and wrote all of it.