Short Film Planning

Genre: Found footage horror

Plot: Friends go camping/hiking in the Forest whilst they are in the forest something stalks them and terrorises them as they try to survive as they witness a sacrifice.

Film form: dark natural colours, dark lighting use of natural lighting, no non diegetic music

The hunt has influence my work by using a similar style of filming by using found footage and also Elephant by using no music to create a disturbing.

Narrative: 1 or maybe 2 characters working out the enigma of who is stalking them 

evaluative analysis

Elephant is a short film using an obscure way of filming and presenting the narrative to the audience as no dialogue is present within the film having a run time of 39 minutes and keeps a consistent follow shot throughout the film through the perspective of multiple different people giving off a cold documentary style atmosphere as we follow multiple people throughout the narrative as they walk along the scene and shoot an innocent person and chillingly walk away unfazed at what they have done. throughout the film drama and crime genre conventions are portrayed for example the suspense gradually built in each scene as the lack of dialogue builds tension and this reinforced due to the lack of music being present throughout the film creating a more realistic and disturbing atmosphere. This short film has inspired my ideas for my short film by having more of a realistic tone by having a lack of editing and non diegetic music begin present within my short film to give a realistic tone and to build suspense and creating an eerie theme without using music and using film form to create this atmosphere.

Night Fishing is a South Korean short horror film having an obscure way of portraying the narrative by giving no context at the beginning of the narrative by having no dialogue present however through the beginning scene a follow shot conveys who the main character is. horror conventions are portrayed by the darkness of each scene and especially the scene where he is attacked by the woman who we initially think is a dead body and the next scene the roles are reversed and the woman is a shaman priestess performing a ritual at the funeral for the man who drowned in the river. This film inspires me to have a more grainy realistic found footage style way of filming as the entire film is shot on an iPhone 4 giving it an older grainy footage which creates more of an eerie atmosphere also similar to Elephant it has a lack of dialogue which has inspired me to use less or no dialogue within my short film to help reinforce that dark eerie tone and using this tone to further the narrative. And with this tone created in those short films has inspired my coursework to have a similar style and tone. 

The Hunt is another horror short film which consists of a search party looking around the woods as the main character gives exposition as he explains that cattle was initially found mutilated and now people have begun to be found the second half of the film consists of the search party being killed off  unlike the other two films this one follows a consistent narrative giving exposition and context giving off a more classic Hollywood style of film as this is very dialogue heavy whereas the other two have more of an experimental form of creating narrative and structure without dialogue and using the facial expressions of the characters around them and leaving much of the story up for interpretation whereas The Hunt doesn't really do this giving a clear backstory which then is used to progress the story having a realistic tone. Towards the ending a sci-fi theme is created as we come closer to finding out what happened to the animals and people which we find out in the beginning and this build up to the climax of the narrative and them finding out what the creature is helps create an enigma code for the audience whilst the film plays keeping the audience engaged with the narrative. Within my coursework i have created a similar enigmatic code which is hiding the identity of my antagonist to create this mystery but also to help create a frightening tone.  

With my production course work I have been greatly inspired by the short film The Hunt with a similar setting being in a forest whilst having a similar narrative of the protagonist being hunted down however instead of the antagonist being this feral creature like in The Hunt my short film will use similar aspects toward my antagonist by not showing their face and keeping them hidden from the audience adding tension to my work. Also within my storyboard there is no dialogue present like the other short films like Night Fishing and The Elephant and this lack of dialogue allows tension to build through sound and performance using facial expressions and jump scares to add horror and build lots more tension in scenes . Also I will use similar horror conventions of darkness as my short film takes place at night taking inspiration from the other short films. And with these inspirations from these short films my storyboard allows the audience to feel this unsettling atmosphere from the dark lighting, camera angles and antagonist help create this tone. 

i also have been inspired by other pieces of work like the Blair Witch Project as i initially wanted to film a found footage short film however this limits the camera flexibility and movement as I used long shots and tracking shots to connote to the protagonist being stalked from the very beginning but still keeping a similar setting and also being inspired by another short film called the Smiling Man because of the use of the camera utilizing over the shoulder shots to build tension which I have used within my story board and the close up at the end to add a final jump scare which also has inspired my storyboard and also with the introduction of the antagonist as I kept them hidden similar to the smiling man to create tension.