Portfolio Week 3 Post #2 Group Discussion and Score Selection

    For this post, I intended to post the completed storyboard that we would work on in class but in class today we instead focused on a group discussion with my peers for feedback, so I will likely post about the storyboard over the weekend when I talk to my group again. I will also incorporate my process of trying to find a score and/or sting for my opening into this blog post since it was one of my weekly goals on my schedule. 

Group Discussion 

Picture of me and my peers in the group (the circled person is me)

    Today in class I convened with a group of my peers to discuss what I have done for this project so far and to get their feedback on it. I will only discuss the feedback I got since that is relevant to the purpose of documenting my process. When we got into groups and it was my turn to present my progress I showed the blog you are reading. I discussed my plot, the sequence I had conceived, and some shot types I wanted to do. My group replied to this information positively for the most part. They said that the idea was good and interesting to do the doppelganger for the antagonist which adds mystery. They did say that for my idea, I really need to test the lighting for it and ensure it fits the vibe to make it seem creepy also I need to make sure the reveal is well executed to build fear right away. Finally, they said that I need to practice with aftereffects to make the doppelganger look scary and not normal like I want it to which I plan to do in the editing weeks. Overall the discussion focused on the areas of importance for the filming and the scenes I need to get right in order to make my opening great.  

Score/Sting Selection

    For our film opening, we also wanted to incorporate sound as an integral element in it to help aid in building suspense as is often done in horror pieces like the ones we researched. We also decided that we may want to establish a sting for our killer here that would persist throughout the film we are creating an opening for if it were to continue. Although there will not likely be music played throughout the whole thing as we want to use silence and the raw noise of the background as elements of our opening I still think it is a great idea to go and look into some different tracks to use for the opening.

    The place I went to search for potential tracks to use in our opening was Youtube, the home of endless copyright-free music, I went this route because I know there is a lot of horror-centric music out there to pull from that is free and that it will overall be easier than asking for licensed more popular scores. From my searching, I quickly found a playlist with about 64 songs to do with horror music that is also copyright free. I skimmed these tracks and found that many were not suited to my envision of the plot but I did find some gems in the playlist. 

This track has a lot of aspects I want like the overall creepy feel incorporating spots of silence with times of screechy eerie noise which I think can work well for the hiding scene or the reveal scene. 

This track also has a lot of great elements, especially at the 0:32 second mark where the sounds climax which can be used for our ending. Also, the many bumping sounds could be used as a type of sting for our audience hinting our killer is getting closer due to its ominous and loud nature of it. 

I really liked it for its teasing nature as the sound at the beginning ramps up quickly and then stops which can imply if used in the scene where the MC is hiding can hint to the audience that the killer is steadily approaching but the sound makes you always on edge for when the reveal will happen. 

Conclusion

    Overall, today was pretty useful in the process of making the opening. The music as stated earlier is planned to be an integral component of building the suspense and fear in the opening overall. Also, the discussion with my peers really helped to make the areas I need to focus on during the filming more clear to me. Finally, we also started to work on the storyboard which should be done likely by tomorrow or Saturday. I will make an update post about what whenever it is complete and give a walk-through of what it involves and how it will aid us in the future. Until then stay tuned!