During June, I worked on this 1 minute short film, which helps me learn how to use the Source Filmmaker program, green screen shooting and After Effects chroma keying and tracking. This had nothing to do with the course rather than being good practice.
Month / July 2015
The final film
Starring Nhan Dang, Tung Nguyen, Roger Knott-Fayle, Thanh Duong and Yen Dao.
Special thanks to Roger Knott-Fayle.
Questionnaire results and analysis
Aiming for between 15-20 responses, I gathered 20, which is a good number for testing with a variety of respondents (majority aged between 21-25, some respondents are 30 and over 50).
The first 3 questions ask the respondents generally about the whole short film and not just the modified scenes to see whether they perceive the genre as horror. Out of 19 respondents, only 3 said they didn’t think the genre was horror (15%), therefore it is fine to say that the film genre is horror. With this being true, the 3 versions’ responses will be more accurate in determine which element affect the genre.
The next question asks which element scared or startled the viewers in the film the most, in which they can select multiple choices. 65% answered sound effects, and 60% answered music. The story, visual elements, lighting and jumpscares share 3rd-6th place with 40% each. Finally, with the lowest value, narration, with 1 answer, said that it scares him/her.
What this means is that the most important elements that contribute to the horror elements of a film is sound effects and music, whilst narration has little or no effect. This is the 3 elements that will be tested in the next part of the questionnaire.
Modified music version
In the modified music version, the horror music is replaced by something you would rather find in a comedy movie or a cartoon.
8 respondents (40%) feel more comfortable with the replaced music than the original, while 12 (60%) said that they are less scared with this version. I also assumed that some respondents might not be scared with the original music. With the big change in music, 15 respondents (75%) no longer considers this version to be horror. This is a very significant number.
Removed narration version
In this version, the narration is removed, which gives more volume for music and sound effect. Although the majority mentioned that the narration does not scare them, lacking narration allows music and sound to have more effect.
7 (35%) respondents said that they were still uncomfortable, and the other 35% said that they feel even more uncomfortable, which add up to 70%. Similarly, 30% and 35% respectively said that they still feel scared and feel even more scared. 80% considers version genre to still be horror, keeping in mind that 15% already mentioned from the beginning that they do not think the short’s genre is horror.
Added sounds version
In this version, some comedic sound (boiing) is added every time a jumpscare happens, which reduces the scare factor, rather than an unexpected sound of a piano or violin screech. This also meant to reduce fear. However, more than half still feel uncomfortable and 40% still feel scared, meaning that sounds might not really have that big of an effect. This is certainly true, since in horror films, especially those having clowns as scare factors, are often accompanied with sounds similar to that is heard in this version. 65% still consider this version to be horror.
Finally, throughout all versions, 30% feel that music makes them a lot more comfortable watching compared to others (20% and 10% on narration and sound, respectively), and 50% feel that music makes them feel least scared (10% and 15% on narration and sound, respectively).
Limitations and implications for future research
The biggest limitation of this research is the inability to test the effect of visual elements. With a bigger budget and more investment in terms of time, this could have been achievable, since visual elements need to be changed within the pre- and production period, and less in post-production period.
Additionally, the amount of respondents were also limited. The changed elements were also limited, in theory (the “sandwich”), there could potentially be hundred of edits, 1 in each element, but within each element, there could potentially be be hundreds more. With a lot more investment in time and money, a bigger research could be conducted.
Conclusion
Even though films genre are somewhat blurry to be determined, horror is the most obvious because it deals directly with viewers’ emotion. Through this research, the element that is the most influential in affecting the genre of a film is music. This reflects many of the secondary research that I did earlier this year with emotion and music. Of course, scary music alone is not enough to turn a comedy into a horror without the help of other elements, although in this short clip, some cats playing with toys with added sound effects and music actually be scary.
Finally, the research question was:
What is the most important element that can affect the audience’s viewing experience, emotion and understanding of a film?
The answer is: music is the strongest element in affecting the audience’s viewing experience, emotion and understanding, which is the genre of the film. To be more specific, not any kind of music, but music that is dissonant to the remainder of the elements within the film.
Questionnaire design and project testing
Final questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ofxpDEFGwbhnWDbEDK1UbOjpPFQp5MegeUlGaqrkJ4Y/viewform?usp=send_form
After finishing post-production, the project is rendered into 4 different versions: the original version, and 3 different versions of the scene of the killer entering the house and meeting Matthew until the end.
The purpose of the questionnaire is to test which element in the film in the most important in determining its genre, e.g. horror, comedy, etc. The three versions are as follow:
- Changing the type of music
- Removing the narration
- Adding sound effects
It’s important to notice that the 3 elements that are chosen are all aural and not visual, since visual elements take place during production process and not during post production. It will take much longer time due to different lighting set up (measuring lighting element), different actors and costumes (characters), therefore it is more costly in terms of money and time if visual elements are to be tested.
The genre of the original film is horror, therefore questions are asked regarding the modified versions’ genre to see if the viewers perceive the genre differently, which will in turn, determine which element is the most important in film.
Post-production of final project
The most complicated part of the final project was post-production. Many of the shots requires After Effects to be used as part of the story. Additionally, different music tracks have to be composed, as well as a short game animation done in Source Filmmaker. I will divide this post into different scenes.
Scene 1: Color grading and correction
Before and after
In the first scene, there were no special effects involved. The original light was a little bit too dark, though it is intended to be night time while being shot during the day. However, the first few seconds of the film is complete darkness with a natural fade in, so it already gives the feeling that this film takes place during the night. Additionally, the color overall was a bit too red.
Effects: color correction, grading
Scene 2: animation and After Effects tracking
Final scene:
After Effect composition:
For this scene, the raw footage was imported into After Effects, along with an animation footage created by myself in Source Filmmaker (below). After applying effects to make it appear to be generated from the actual computer screen (noise and fractal noise), the latter composition is imported into the first one, using a tracking camera to make it appear to be from the screen. The latter footage also tracks the animation camera to generate ‘Matty299’ and the health bar.
Scene 2: chat window
This scene is done mostly using Photoshop and splitting messages into multiple layers, showing one after another. Additionally, noise effect is added to make it less clear and seems to be appear from a computer screen. Chat “sounds” are added later as messages appear (piano sounds from Ableton Live). I did a similar scene at the beginning of the year, which was also a chat message window.
Scene 3: Heads
Before and after
Although the head dropping is only 14 frames, it is very important for me for this scene to look as realistic as possible. The original head is polystyrene with a wig. The process was to import into After Effects and doing some rotoscoping, making images (eyes, blood) 3D and attaching it to its respecting positions frame by frame. Additional color grading also has to be done to make it less white and appear to be real human heads. Of course, it still doesn’t look close to the actual “Matthew’s mom” head, but the viewers don’t know what she really looks like anyway.
Additional post-production tasks:
Composing music in Ableton Live using MIDI keyboard
Prior to “composing” the music, I did minor research onto how to create horror film soundtrack through this link. Combining with research I did early in the schoolyear on music, horror film music is simply music that is dissonant sounding music, or any music that doesn’t sound normal, unusual chords or unusual instruments, and of course, some inspirations from films such as The Shining and Insidious.
There were also various sound effects that were downloaded from freesound.org (big thanks to those who uploaded the files) that had to be slightly edited using Adobe Audition.
Final project pre-production and production
Pre-production
On the 8th of July, our crew (consisting of myself and 3 other people) came to the location to prepare for the shooting as well as shooting one scene because the actress for that particular scene could not join the next day.
Prior to shooting, I prepared a script, a storyboard and a detailed schedule.
Script and storyboard:
Before the shoot, I already had a clear idea of what the set will look like, so drawing the storyboard according to the location was ideal to save time and making sure that the shot look accurate. Some props had to be prepared and purchased beforehand.
List of props: picture frame, 2x polystyrene heads, blue tack, posters, blood, hoodie, mask, “baby” (a stuffed animal), crib
List of equipment: Canon 6D, 2x lenses, IKAN light 1024, reflector, tripod, Zoom recorder, shotgun mic, XLR cable
Production/shooting
On the 8th, after all preparations were completed, we begin to set up the first shot, which is the scene at the staircase.
On the 8th, it took us 3 hours to prepare and shoot the first scene, and on the 9th, it took us about 8 hours including a lunch break, so the total production time was 11 hours.
Setting up the “crib” for the “baby”
In reality, we didn’t know how to put the crib together so we only put 3 sides together with the camera looking outwards.
Setting up the posters for set design
Covering the window with foil to make it appear like nighttime
Roger working on his Asian family photo – with his head photoshopped onto mine
The result
Shooting on the 2nd requires recreating the lighting setup on the first day
Myself getting ready for the shoot
Roles
The film has 4 characters and 2 “heads”. I play 2 different roles (as Peter and “healer116”), Tung plays Matthew, Roger plays the Dad as well as providing the voice of “healer116”, Thanh and Yen plays the two “heads” of Matthew’s “parents”. As for the lighting, sound and camera, each person fills the other role. Roger occasionally provides us with additional lights in his house if we feel like the lighting condition is not good enough for a shot, since most of the shots are very dark, therefore needs to be carefully lit.
What I learned from this experience
- It’s extremely important to be prepared for shooting, since it saves everyone’s time.
- Before going, everything that needs to be brought have be carefully prepared (equipment, props and storyboard). This is important especially when the filming location is far away from where the equipment and props are stored. If anything essential is missing, it might cause problems.
- Be sure to have multiple copies of scripts and storyboard for everyone.
- Bring multiple fully charged batteries for every equipment.
nhancdang 