We shot some test footage for our group project exploring genre and audience expectation on Thursday. We were testing various shooting methods while looking for suitable locations to shoot in. The shooting methods included trying out the day for night shooting method which involves changing the white balance to around 3200 kelvin therefore creating a blue tinge to the footage. We then underexposed the footage so that it looked darker. When the camera was aimed at the sky it became obvious that it was daylight. We then avoided the sky and shot the character Vincent, played by his writer, Trent. Vincent is a goth, and we were experimenting with the horror genre because that is the way that Vincent sees the world. We wanted to see if we could convincingly shoot during the day scenes that took place at night. The test was rather successful as shown in the footage below. This means that we can schedule the goth shoots during the daytime. I edited the footage together and colour corrected the images, then I found spooky, horror ambiance and music that I added to the footage. This created an ominous effect and set the mood for the trailer. I also experimented with titles, because titles are an indicates to the audience what to expect when choosing to see a film.
We then moved on to other locations, we were looking for a suitable location to shoot the hallway scenes in, and we came across a hallway in building 7 on level 2. These was a silence sign on one of the walls and we decided to position our characters below the sign to experiment with staging. We then shot some footage with the Ted character who sees everything as a Teen movie, similar to the Breakfast Club. So we shot some footage around lockers and I inter-cut this footage with the hallway and made a trailer emulating the Breakfast Club. I colour corrected the footage to bring out the colours, this is in contrast to the horror version, where I tinted the hallway blue to match the day for night footage. I then found some 80’s-esc. music which I added to the footage and added a school bell, which is so iconic to most teen movies. I then added titles similar to the Breakfast Club film to reflect the teen movie nature of the film to the audience.
This whole process reveals to me how easy it is to form audience expectations based on previously established tropes and conventions. If it is dark with spooky music, it is a horror film, if it has a school bell and immature characters it is a teen movie. I am not quite sure that the brown background in the hallway works, because it throws off the bright and colourful palette of the locker scene. We may have to find a different hallway should we choose a different aesthetic. This process has been interesting and I am looking forward to working more in this project.
Day for Night Tips
- Avoid the sky: it because very obvious that it is daytime if you can see the sky as the night sky does not emit light
- Set your white balance to 3200 kelvin or similar: this give the footage a blue tinge, similar to moonlight
- Under expose your image: if you underexpose your footage you limit the amount of light you capture therefore it is more believable
- Colour correct the footage: after the images were captured the footage needs tweaking. Reduce the midtones and highlights and increase the shadows for maximum affect
The below image shows what the footage looked like before and after colour grading.
Horror Test
Teen Movie Test
