Possession Practice Shots
These are our practice shots. We decided to use final cut to be able to reverse the shots. We felt that the variety of shots and techniques that we used in these practice shots were effective and relevant to our teaser trailer.
For our first shots we simply had Courtney (our actor for our
practice shots) jump of a sofa and off a table and then reversed the shots so it
looks like he glides or flies back onto the in a supernatural manner. The next
shot was the group’s favourite, where Aaron (Ex-group member) writes backward
and then throws the pen. When we reversed this shot on final cut express, it
appears that the pen is pulled by a supernatural force into Aarons hand and
then he starts writing normally. We next tried to make a shot that would look
like Courtney was thrown across the room with unnatural force when reversed, we
did this by Courtney jumping off a table into Ben’s (actor/costume designer)
arms and then reversing the shot, however when we reversed the shot it looked
like Ben simply lifts Courtney onto the table instead of him being thrown with
unnatural force.
We then moved onto possession shots. Our first shot was of Aaron
pulling himself off a table. We then reversed the shot to make it seem creepy
and also added the sound of someone clicking their bones/knuckles over the
shot. This sound however, did not suit the footage so our editor (Jessie)
slowed it down to make it sound deeper pitch and then overlaid the sound in
places that made it seem Aarons body was clicking in a unnatural and disgusting
way. We used the same sound in our next shot of Courtney moving his arm and
neck to make them seem they are breaking or crumbling.
We then tried a mirror trick. We took two different shots of Ben
looking into a mirror with one of him looking into the mirror and then walking
away and the other or him looking into the mirror and then grabbing his neck and
pulling it sideways to make it look like he has broken his own neck. We then
edited these shots on final cut express and overlapped them with the two shots
cropped at the mirror line – one showing the reflection in the mirror, the other
showing Ben looking into the mirror. By playing these shots together it now
looks like Ben looks into the mirror and walks away while the reflection stays
and breaks his neck. We also put a soundtrack over the footage for when Ben
breaks his neck so you know that he has broke his neck.
Our next shots were of an entity/ghost or supernatural force
pushing/pulling our actors over onto the floor and then dragging them away. We
did this by placing them on a skateboard and attaching a string to pull them
away. After our first try we found that you could see that we have moved
something under the person so we needed an extra shot to make the scene have
better continuity so in our next try we added the shot of our actor hitting the
floor which did make it look better. In our last try we also had 3 shots but
ended up removing the second shot as it drew away from the supernatural aspect
and basically just made the audience laugh. (JB,JC,JH,BC)
practice shots) jump of a sofa and off a table and then reversed the shots so it
looks like he glides or flies back onto the in a supernatural manner. The next
shot was the group’s favourite, where Aaron (Ex-group member) writes backward
and then throws the pen. When we reversed this shot on final cut express, it
appears that the pen is pulled by a supernatural force into Aarons hand and
then he starts writing normally. We next tried to make a shot that would look
like Courtney was thrown across the room with unnatural force when reversed, we
did this by Courtney jumping off a table into Ben’s (actor/costume designer)
arms and then reversing the shot, however when we reversed the shot it looked
like Ben simply lifts Courtney onto the table instead of him being thrown with
unnatural force.
We then moved onto possession shots. Our first shot was of Aaron
pulling himself off a table. We then reversed the shot to make it seem creepy
and also added the sound of someone clicking their bones/knuckles over the
shot. This sound however, did not suit the footage so our editor (Jessie)
slowed it down to make it sound deeper pitch and then overlaid the sound in
places that made it seem Aarons body was clicking in a unnatural and disgusting
way. We used the same sound in our next shot of Courtney moving his arm and
neck to make them seem they are breaking or crumbling.
We then tried a mirror trick. We took two different shots of Ben
looking into a mirror with one of him looking into the mirror and then walking
away and the other or him looking into the mirror and then grabbing his neck and
pulling it sideways to make it look like he has broken his own neck. We then
edited these shots on final cut express and overlapped them with the two shots
cropped at the mirror line – one showing the reflection in the mirror, the other
showing Ben looking into the mirror. By playing these shots together it now
looks like Ben looks into the mirror and walks away while the reflection stays
and breaks his neck. We also put a soundtrack over the footage for when Ben
breaks his neck so you know that he has broke his neck.
Our next shots were of an entity/ghost or supernatural force
pushing/pulling our actors over onto the floor and then dragging them away. We
did this by placing them on a skateboard and attaching a string to pull them
away. After our first try we found that you could see that we have moved
something under the person so we needed an extra shot to make the scene have
better continuity so in our next try we added the shot of our actor hitting the
floor which did make it look better. In our last try we also had 3 shots but
ended up removing the second shot as it drew away from the supernatural aspect
and basically just made the audience laugh. (JB,JC,JH,BC)