Sample Scene 3

We planned our next shoot for December 8th, during the afternoon so we could aim to shoot before dark, while still having a few night scenes. We had originally planned to keep the material we had shot for our rough cut, after having reviewed the scenes and some possible issues, we may reshoot certain scenes. 

Our location was the forest near my house, we chose it since it was easy to access and has a lot of variety in the path and trees. It was also close to the street we were using to film the next scene, and was well lit in the dark. 

For costume, we wanted to use everything to include in our final cut. We wanted to reflect the character archetypes of slasher, and use signifiers, such as the letterman jacket and the short skirt to anchor these tropes. The full detail for costume is on the blogpost here .

The main issue we encountered was due to the cold temperatures and hail. Although we had brought jackets for the cast they were not warm enough while shooting, which caused a lot of delays. If reshooting, or for our burial scene, we would plan on wearing warmer layers.

To break up the scene, we created a call sheet with the shots we intended to use. This helped us get the shot variety we wanted as well as keeping track of where we were at, before adding other shots. 

The script we used and the evolution of it is on the blogpost here .

Here is me directing the cast and demonstrating how I wanted them to perform for the jump scare. 

This is the initial edit of the sample scene:

After showing our media class, we have received the following feedback:

Transcript: 

What are the first initial mistakes that you noticed?

- Sense of stalking wasn't created

- Phone pings timings don’t sync up

- Shots of ground is unnecessary, can cut scene shorter

- We can clearly see her shaking, mask the elements of coldness

Can you clearly denote the horror genre? If not, what can we do to make it clearer that it’s horror?

- The false scare

- Connotations of drinking, smoking, and sex as "sinful" 

Is there anything we can change visually?

- Zoom in on the phone to show the text better

- Bottle isn't seen well

- Unnecessary unscrewing shot, and re-screwing is too long

- Can see the cigarette is broken, cut to hide that

Continuity wise, are there any parts that don’t make sense?

- Zoom in or zoom out when jumping between shots to flow better

- Close up reaction to vodka can be taken out

- Remove camera shake during scare

Are there any changes we should make to the dialogue?

- Dialogue seems ingenuine ("slash my throat")

- Bad dialogue audio, rerecord

Overall the shoot was very successful. To avoid losing time in the future we would aim to rehearse and block the scenes with the cast multiple times, and also plan ahead due to weather conditions, making sure to dress warmly and maybe bring a warm drink or gloves for the cast.