Rough Shot List (Basic Plan)

This is a very rough starting point to begin filming with a planned structure. We've also conducted a risk assessment to determine any potential problems or hazards that we could run into during the filming process. Each location has been checked and filmed in order to get a feel for the environment and the lighting availible. This was all done to achieve the maximum quality outcome!

Special Effects Practice

Here I was trying out different effects for our trailer and seeing what we could do in iMovie. We changed this clip to a 'negative effect' so that it looks almost sterile, which could be useful for our trailer to highlight anything incriminating.
I also changed it into black and white to give it a more creepy feeling, and make it look a bit more like a horror film.

We were also playing around with the audio effects and learnt how to detach audio and put on music instead, which will be very useful for our trailer.

Editing Progress

Today we have been editing our makeup testing video on iMovie so we can track our progress regarding make-up and  keep a record of different effects.


We needed to speed up parts of our video which we learnt how to do today - a useful skill for when our trailer footage needs editing.

Make Up Experiments

As a brief outline, we began discussing what types of make-up would work for our trailer as it needs to be quite obviously gory and messy! There needed to be quite a lot of blood and therefore, had to resemble a serious injury. We began having a look at what make-up was available and was easily accessible for us to purchase and work with. During the process, we also discovered that acrylic paint worked really well to create the illusion of bruising and cuts. The yellow and purple tones surrounding the more serious part of the injury made it look more painful and ultimately more horrific. We experimented with eyeshadows and lip colour to give it a more glossy finish and also added a small amount of Vasaline to make it seem fresh and bloody, as if it had just happened. Whilst taking ideas from our research and youtube videos already on the blog, we decided to purchase some fake blood. This made the finished outcome seem a lot more realistic and a lot more messy and bloody which was the effect we wanted to achieve. The more horrific the outcome, the better our appliance of make-up.


Examples of our Attempts

This effect was created by studying existing make-up techniques and applying some of our experimentive ideas and trying to layer the colours and blend the colours to create the illusion of the bruising in specific areas of the face. The cuts were also created to emphasize the brutality of the 'attack' on the girls. We intend to apply these methods to our adaption of the make-up testing and we will continue to build on our techniques in order to identify what looks the best when shooting. 

As we continued to look at existing make-up trials and started developing our skills, we began to study how the application of layers on and around the eye created depth and realism. The use of specific colours was incredibly important in the development. It allowed us to look at where the darker colour had to be used and what blend of colours created a more horrific looking injury. The more vibrant red's and browns helped to accentuate the deep 'cuts' in the face and the gauging of the cheek with a small knife. The effect became more and more realistic as the colours were built up on top of one another and ultimately making it seem fresh and painful. We also decided to control the level of light when taking the image as an example. This was taken into consideration due to the fact that when we film there will be minimal light and we need to be able to see the extent of the injuries in minimal available light. 

Later, we collectively sat down as a group and discussed what areas of the body needed to be affected by injury and where we had to apply make-up to give the illusion of horror that was specific to our narrative and the conventions of horror trailers. This included studying our plot, yet still giving minimal away as we want our trailer to have some secretiveness in order to intrigue our audience in the long run. We then also discussed our pre-planning before shooting as the make-up takes a good 20 minutes to apply with the level of detail that we want to portray. This meant that our time schedule had to allow for the appliance of make-up before shooting can even begin. After we finalized some ideas and organised our time management to accomodate our make-up, we reviewed the tests that we'd already used and created video evidence of the testing and the gradual process of application.

This image is a good example of how the metallic lip colour worked to our advantage in order to create a 'fresh wound'. It complimented to use of fake blood to define the individual cuts and damage to the knuckles and also helped to emphasize the bruising that developed and blended onto the hand itself. The make-up we used to create these effects was:

• Rimmel London Metallic Bronze EyeGlaze £3.99
• Maybelline Enhancing Dust Shadow in No.12 £4.95
•  Collection 2000 Lip colour in 'Rose' £2.99
• Fake Blood from Asda £1.00
• Vasaline (Blue Original Tin) £1.95
• Acrylic Paint in Brown, Scarlett and Violet
• Selection of Make-up brushes and Bristle paint brushes 

possible filming locations!

For outside filming and the tent scenes :-
Ellie's back garden - as she has a tent and has permission to use the space and tent.
Billie's Granddad's - as she has permission to use it and the space to put up a tent.
Jubilee park :- as it a big space and has lots of filming spots, although we may not be allowed, and may cause disruption to other people.


For inside scenes and filming :-
Billie's Granddad's house - as we have permission to use it and wont be effecting anyone else, although we well have to be careful with the furniture and things.

Character Profiles.

Name: Alex Gibbs         

Age: 17

D.O.B: 23/05/1994
Interests: Netball, Singing,

Appearance: Medium length black hair, brown eyes. 5ft 5ish.

Interesting Facts: Only child, lives alone with her mother.

Name: Zoe Jones          

Age: 17
D.O.B: 13/11/1994
Interests: Dancing,
Appearance: 5ft 7, long brown and blonde hair, hazel eyes.
Interesting Facts: Has been Alex’s best friend for over 10 years.

Name: Anna Reading    
Age: 18

D.O.B: 12/09/1993
Interests: Acting
Appearance: Long blonde hair, 5ft 2ish.
Interesting Facts: Lives alone with her boyfriend of 2 years.

Name: Erin Wilcox
Age: 18
D.O.B: 28/10/1993
Interests: Reading
Appearance: Long brown hair, 5ft 4, Blue eyes.
Interesting Facts: Just recently broke up with her boyfriend of a year, so has a little resentment towards Anna and her relationship.

Name: Sophie Wilcox
Age: 16
D.O.B: 19/03/1995
Interests: Dancing, Performing
Appearance: Long dark hair, large blue eyes, 5ft 3ish
Interesting Facts: Is the youngest of the girls, and also suffers from schitzophrenia.

Genre conventions of slasher films

The locations of slasher films are usually natural everyday environments, such as houses and woods like in Sorority Row or in universities like in The Roomate. They usually have an event or an action that trigers someone to start killing - something that the killer has done and doesn't want anyone to find out about, or something the victims have done and the killer wants revenge or payback like in Sorority Row.
There is usually a signifying prop like a murder weapon or a piece of clothing that is used to identify the killer and make them stand out such as the mask in Scream or the the cross in Sorority Row.
The victims in these films are usually attractive young females and the killers are usually male characters.
I would say horror/slasher films are aimed at a male and female audiences of 18 - 30 years of age.


The music is usually creepy and jumpy created for a certain effect and to extract a certain emotion out of the audience. It is usually has no lyrics and is usually repeated throughout the film to create synergy throughout.


The editing is fast paced with quick changes between shots. There is a mix of angles and shots all to create effect and build tension. There is usually close ups and POV shots used to direct the audiences attention to a certain point and highlight key things.