This picture is of the church that features in my main task, and was taken by myself.
Health & Safety:
When thinking about health and safety, I had to consider many potential hazards that could occur and how I could prevent them. These hazards were things such as the concrete floor: in one of my shots I wanted to include one of my actors falling to the ground, but due to the risk that he could of injured himself, I decided to change this and have a POV shot from his point of view, so that it gave the illusion that he was falling.
Other risks were falling from the balcony that I recorded the second scene on: I could have fallen from it which would of injured myself and damaged the camera, so for this i just made sure that I didn't stand too close to the edge of the balcony.
Other than those potential issues, it was safe and I could progress with the recording stages.
Time Management:
I had scheduled the church and my actors for the 28th and 29th December 2011, for 1pm-4pm on each day. This allowed enough time to practice, record, and make changes where necessary.
Notes On Permissions:
I contacted Keith Crocker (Reverend of Christ Church) via email regarding my assignment, and the requirements of using a church for my main task, of which we discussed what my main task was all about, and what I would need to proceed. Thankfully, he agreed to allow us to use the Church and film the interior/exterior on the 28th and 29th for the hours stated above. When I had booked the church, I informed my acting staff of the dates/times I would need them.
Script Ideas/Development/Final:
I didn't want to use dialogue, mainly because I thought that my ideas would be more effective without the use of a script, and also because I did not have a high quality microphone, and I felt that this would downgrade my piece.
Synopsis:
The 11th Testament: After a ceremonial disaster involving a Catholic Priest and two of his followers, Satan bounds himself to them, unleashing terror among the local community. The Satanic Priest captures the souls of innocent Catholic children: their purity providing power to Satan, making him stronger! Will the community be able to stop him in time?
Research On Non-Diegetic Sound:
Due to my main task being in the demonic-of-horror sub-genre, and the added fact that it is based around a church, I found that I should use something slow, scary, and involving an organ. So I found a royalty-free soundtrack on Youtube called 'Horror music haunted woods (Gothic IV Arcania)' And I have featured this in my video. It is slow, includes an organ, and builds up the tension rather well in my opinion.
Audience Theory:
Successful horror works on the psychological fears that we have as a child. For example, we were all afraid of the dark, of monsters, small spaces, isolation and so on. My main task uses elements of these fears to play on the audiences mind. The lighting in the church is limited to the natural light of the windows (due to my colour correction editing) making it fairly dark. I have also included a demon transformation on the Priest, primarily because it is a key feature of the demonic-of-horror sub-genre, but also because I know that this is usually the thing that scares me the most in films.
Audience Research- Defining My Audience:
My main task has conformed from conventions of the genre I have stylized it around, but it has also turned out to appear in the style of 80's horror (due to lighting/pace/style etc). Because of the 80's horror element, my main target audience would be for the middle aged people (30-50 years old).
Research Of Exhibition & Distribution:
If I was to distribute this as a full length film, I would have it as a 15 Certificate due to explicit scenes/language/blood. Due to the language used, it would have to be aired on TV after the watershed, and I would distribute it on Channel 5, because they regularly air horror films targeted at the older generation. As well as Channel 5, I would also distribute it on The Horror Channel, because they also air content targeted at the older generation.
Representation & Stereotypes:
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Casting:
I only needed two main characters, and a few 'extras' to make the Church look used moreso than having a couple of people. Due to limited availability of acting staff, I could only have 2 extras (Chelsie Brociek & Christie Attah). For the Priest role, I decided to use Ashley Canham, and for the boy, I used Nicholas Pulford-Cutting.
Character Development:
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Job Allocation:
I had to adapt and plan how to assign jobs for the different parts, and being limited to having just myself other than the acting staff, I took the role of Director, Cameraman, Producer, Editor and Special FX. If I had extra staff, I could of done things better and more organized.
Decision Making:
Throughout the filming process, many executive decisions had to be made due to limitations of the hardware and acting capability. I didn't have access to a tripod, so all of my shots are handheld. Due to health and safety, I had to change a scene of which the boy (Nicholas) fell to the ground: Instead we came up with the plan to use a POV shot to give the illusion of falling.
Continuity:
For continuity, I had to make sure that the pace of each shot was equal. For example, in shot 2 (Ashley walks down the isle) it cut at the end and resumed in shot 3 from a different camera angle. I had to make sure that this was at the same pace. Also, I had to monitor other details such as facial expressions, adjustments to clothing, timing and lighting. Because I used colour correction and colour curve editing, it was harder to sustain the same light levels in each shot.
