For our OTS we took inspiration from several found-footage style films, such as Paranormal Activity (2012) and Chronicle (2012), as we felt that this style of cinematography makes the scenes feel more real to the viewer, as it puts them in the perspective of the characters. This style has been a trend in horror films in recent years, so in this way we have conformed to this horror convention, but we felt this really enhanced the tension in the scenes.
We used these films as inspiration as they are relatively recent, and therefore are still successful with viewers today.
We decided to film most of the shots from the perspective of the cameraman, in order to really use this style effectively.
Shown here in our OTS as "Ben Wright' speaks to the camera
Shown here in Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) and Chronicle (2012)
While these films are often filmed at night time, we filmed ours during the daytime, for the majority of our shots. This challenges stereotypical conventions of horror, using natural lighting from the sun - when stereotypically, horrors are shot either at nighttime or in dimly lit settings. Low key lighting is used in horror films because it has connotations of danger, mystery and generally instills a sense of unknowing into the viewer.
In contrast, we wanted our viewers to feel that everything is okay at the beginning of the OTS, as the viewer would not expect anything bad to happen during the day. To achieve and develop this, we used only a slight filter to dampen the colour in the first shots, which progressively moves darker and darker towards the end of the OTS, with the final shot of the moon being almost pitch black.
The progression of lighting from high key to low key in our OTS.
Conforming with horror conventions, we decided to use a soundtrack, running through nearly our entire OTS. Soundtracks have been used very successfully in iconic films such as Jaws (1975) and Psycho (1960), and are part of the reason that these films are still famous nearly half a century after they were first released, with countless remasters and re-releases since then.
However, whereas these films use an iconic musical score to enhance tension within the scene, we instead decided to use a more ambient soundtrack in our OTS, and no conventional music.
For example, we used ambient whisper SFX, accompanied by realistic forest sounds, such as wildlife, and wind softly in the background. We felt this would immerse the viewer, especially if they were using earphones, and help them feel as if they were experiencing this for themselves. We decided this on this approach, in order to make viewing the OTS more immersive for the viewer. It would be unrealistic and ruin immersion completely if a grandiose musical score was accompanying our shots.
In this way, our OTS challenges horror conventions, because as a group we felt that making the viewer feel completely involved with the characters and the scene was more important than a conventional approach to music in the OTS.
Soundtracks and music are both commonplace in horror OTS, perhaps two of the most famous examples are from Jaws (1975) Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), the iconic sounds from which are used in popular culture today.
In addition to this, at towards the end of the OTS the sound goes nearly completely silent, and the whispers are muffled. We felt that the absence of sound in the OTS was just as important as its inclusion.
For this, we took inspiration from the first horror films such as Nosferatu (1922), while also drawing inspiration from contemporary directors such as Martin Scorsese, who has been known to use silent moments in his films.
While it is not a horror, in his film Raging Bull (1980), Scorsese used a silent moment to create a 'numbing effect' on the viewer - in this case a boxer who is exhausted and disoriented. We took this idea and decided it would be effective in our OTS.
Towards the end of the OTS, 'Ben Wright' leans into the camera, at which point the sound muffles completely, making use of the 'numbing effect' and therefore making the viewer feel just as disorientated and exhausted as the character surely feels.
In this way, we challenge the convention of using a dramatic soundtrack in horror films, instead choosing to use ambient noises and carefully chosen silent sections to enhance tension, and I feel this was successful.
Finally, we conformed to the convention of all films, in that we made appropriate use of the institutional order of credits in our OTS:
Distributor
Production Company
A film by... (directors name)
TITLE
Starring (lead cast)
Casting By
Music By
Production Designer...
Edited By...
Director of Photography... Written by..
Directed by...
We chose to use a minimal amount of titles for our OTS, as we felt the entire list of credits (including Associate Producers, Costume Designers, and Music Composers) would make the OTS appear cluttered and would present too much text, which would distract from the OTS itself.