Film Rating

Having researched into the BBFC guidelines, we have chosen to give our production a 15 rating. This means that nobody under this age is allowed to watch the film at the cinema or buy/rent it. If we were to make the whole film it would include the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language
• strong threat

All of these features are ones that would be expected in a 15 rated film or video. According to the BBFC, 'moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12A or 12A as long as horror sequences are not too frequent or sustained and the overall tone is not disturbing'. For this reason we decided no to rate it as 12 due to the fact our film would expect to see frequent horror sequences intended to disturb viewers in some way. We have chosen to include violence and threat in order to make the film appear a horror. Without these element the film would be less intense and want our audience to be fully engaged.

We also considered the hypodermic needle theory when making this decision which suggests that audiences are 'injected' by the media and therefore influenced. It is said that children are more passive users of media and so it is important that they do not watch films that include adult themes and are not suitable for them, as they may become influenced by the horror events that take place throughout. For example in the case of James Bulger, it was said that two boys had watched 'Childs Play 3' (a film rated 18) and were heavily influenced by it, leading them to murder the young boy, James.

Fonts

We had to think carefully about the fonts that we would use throughout our trailer and ancillary tasks as we wanted to clearly represent the genre through style of writing. We used a website called www.dafont.com where thousands of different fonts are available. For the main title of the film, 'Somnium' we decided to look for something quite jagged as the sharp edges can connote danger and violence. Films such as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' use such fonts which are thin and sharp.

The font we decided on is like this but has a more scratchy effect. This was perfect as the background for our titles is similar. We too inspiration for this idea from the titles from 'Se7en' which has an extremely effective title sequence at the start of the film. It involves the use of scratches and dark colours to connote horror.

The final title for the film was something we are very pleased with, and we will use the same one for out poster and magazine cover. By doing this we can link all of the products together. Here is the final title which will appear at the end of the trailer.

For the intertitles we decided to use a different font which was more bold and formal as this would make quick reading easier for the audience. The boldness of these titles also makes them stand out more on the grey background, making them seem more intense when accompanied by the sound effects. We found this font on www.dafont.com also as it was a simple way to look through and select from a wide number of different fonts. We used this font on the poster too in order to keep our trailer strongly linked with our ancillary task.

Intertitles

We did some research on trailers and noticed that many of them used intertitles. They use them help tell the story and often it replaces a voice over. An example is in the 'Jessabelle' trailer where they use intertitles to break it up and communicate the story. Intertitles or voice overs are conventional of theatrical trailers and are extremely effective as one of the purposes of a trailer is to tell the basic narrative of the film. This needs to be done in a very short space of time and so titles or voice overs make it easier.

We decided to use this convention in our own production as we felt it would benefit our audience by helping them to understand the story. We chose the words 'what would you do if your childhood nightmare came to life?' and made them appear in three parts. This breaks up the trailer slightly creating a more interesting watch for people, and also hints at the fact that the film is about a nightmare appearing in reality. We used a colour scheme of black and grey which connotes danger and darkness, to keep to conventions of horror trailers. These colours also link to our ancillary task.

Chosen Music

We selected two main pieces of music for our production, both of which we are extremely happy with. It took a while to find them as we needed them to be as fitting as possible. The first piece, 'Possession' by Purple Planet Royalty Free Music, is a quiet and fairly chime like sound. This music opens the trailer as we thought a softer but mysterious sound would be more appropriate than intensity music at this point. By doing this it makes the more intense parts of the trailer stand out. This music also plays when Rosie is a child, and so creates an idea of childhood but in a more strange and eerie way. We used a section of this music to end the production too as we felt it linked the whole product together effectively.

www.purple-planet.com

The second piece we used was a lower and more eerie sound. We saw it was appropriate to bring it in at the point we did as it is just after Evylyn Crick has been introduced and therefore when the story begins to pick up intensity and horror.

Over this music we added our own sound effects such as loud bangs and strange high pitched sounds. This just created a little more volume and power to the production as the highlighted certain significant areas of the trailer, for example when we see Evylyn walk up the stairs in the reflection of the mirror. The sound we used then was 'apprehensive sound' by Mike Koeing which we found on www.soundbible.com. Without this sound this scene would just be quite average and not draw the viewer in as much.

Rough Cut

Somnium - Rough Cut from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

Here is a rough cut of the production so far. From this point we have a number of things to do in order to improve the trailer and make it as professional as we can. At the moment, we just have all of the clips placed in order according to the script. After doing this however, we have realised that it comes across more like a short film, rather than a trailer. In order to resolve this problem we have decided that we will move the scenes around to make flow in a more trailer-like way.

Also, we have no music in the trailer as of yet. We need to select the music that we will use throughout the trailer so that we can add it to the production, positioning it where necessary. We will find sound effects to add to the production too which will help to emphasize significant parts of the trailer. We will change the pitch of Evylyn's voice too, using a software called audacity. This will make her line ('get the girl!') sound more bold and frightening.

A common convention of trailers is to have intertitles which help to tell the narrative. We have decided to use the words 'What would you do... if your childhood nightmare.... came to life?' which we will make appear at 3 different  places at the beginning of the trailer. We also need to create the main title of 'Somnium' which will appear right at the end of the trailer just before the billing block.

Changes to Shotlist

When it came to filming we decided that some of our planning needed altering as we were perhaps too ambitious in what we wanted to achieve. 

3-12-14 Production Diary

Today was our final day of filming, and our aim was to complete everything we needed to which we were successful in doing. We had some scenes of Evylyn Crick to film and also the scenes of young Rosie.

Filming with Layla (Enylyn) was quick and efficient as she was focused and stayed in character. This helped us a lot as as we were able to just get everything done without any distractions. This allowed us as a team to stay focused also and work well.

When we moved location to work with Eleni (young Rosie) she felt slightly embarrassed to start with however we we able to achieve the shots we desired once she began to feel more comfortable. At such a young age I and the rest of the group was extremely pleased with how her shoot went. She put her best efforts into the performance and thoroughly satisfied us.

Eleni and her mother on set

The production day was successful, we managed to film all the scenes we planned. Working with a child, I felt was quite challenging as because she was quite embarrassed and not used to the attention on a film shoot, she was quite difficult to direct. We did however get a better than expected performance out of her. For our last shoot I feel it was successful.

30-11-14 Production Diary

We organised to film scenes 3 and 9 on this day due to a last minute cancellation of one of our actors (Rosie) leaving us with just Layla, to play Evylyn Crick. We decided to still go ahead and film and just get her main scenes done.

Before filming we got her into costume, which was a white gown, and did her hair and make up. We started by dabbing flour onto her face to make her look pale and using black eye make up to darken her eyes and mouth area. We then wet some strands of hair and put them in front in order to hide her face slightly.

During hair and make up, we realised that Layla was wearing some bracelets that could not be removed and so improvised by tying a bandage around her wrist to cover them up. It turned out that we all found this addition highly effective in making her look scary and dangerous. In this last minute decision we also put some tomato ketchup (as we had nothing else to use at the time) onto the bandage to act as blood which we also thought worked well for the character.