Putting the set together

We all met in the workstation in order to start putting the set together for our film. The whole group has been told what the set should look like and in the first week we simply cleaned up the boards to be pained by ripping off the wallpaper and then putting it into position. We put the walls into position and then got out the red paint that we had decided on for the walls, we used a roller to paint the walls and to cover up the gaps between the boards we used masking tape, which was a difficult job in the corner parts of the wall. By the end of the day we had painted walls, the shape of the room we wanted and wallpaper on the wall as well. The day of making the set did feel like it was quite detracted from making a film but on the other hand it felt very practical and creative in a way which was quite nice. Literally building the set for the film means you can make it look exactly how you want (if the budget allows) and leaves a sense of satisfaction when it is done.

A mood Board to show what I think the set could look like

I have added Edward Scissorhands as an idea of how the protagonist could be dressed up in our film (minus the claws) as I have always thought that this character looks amazing and would lend itself to an uncanny film really well. The background is bookshelves that are quite messy as I thought you could do a lot with that such as books flying off, or blood coming out from between the books, things like that. I have also added a dark wooden floor as it reminded me of a room in an old house we used to live in back in Lincoln that always creeped me out even thought it was just an empty room with dark dusty wooden floors and nothing else in it apart from when we first moved in and it has a random assortment of scrap metal and old broken toys. I then added the dark green curtains to suggest the colour scheme and overall style of the room that I had pictured. The old gothic sort of style with very dark colours and dark wood. I used the burn tool to age and darken/add shadows to the image as well as I think that helps to get across the style I am trying to portray.

My Idea

I created this image by manipulating the aliens face from Prometheus and layering it into a strange looking window I found on the internet. I made it black and white and tidied up the area around the window to try and fit the figure in as naturally as I could. The idea I had for this small scene would be for the person inside the house to notice somebody at the window, maybe a neighbor and recognise them but to do a double take as they appear normal but then flicker to having this strange grotesque face. After which they shake this off and go to greet the person at the window but when they get closer the persons reflection in the glass shows their true appearance. I think at this point a dramatic dark lighting change would be good as the figure realises that the protagonist can see their true appearance and then it should advance quickly through the window towards the camera with a POV shot. This would only be a small scene but this is what I envisioned from creating this image and thinking of things that I find normal but could in fact be considered uncanny... such as a neighbor. The thought of something uncanny immediately made me think of neighbors because we tend to trust them and act friendly with them almost right away but when you think about it, they could be anybody and that could be the premise for something quite scary.

Das Unheimliche: 1919 (Uncanny)

I have thought of an idea for my proposal for a two minute film that would fit the requirements of the brief for the uncanny proposal. I read the first few pages of the Das Unheimliche article by Freud and got an idea of what the word uncanny was and this helped me think of how to realise this word successfully. The general idea of it was that familiar things could become unfamiliar and in turn cause fear because of their uncanny nature. This instantly triggered images in my head of things that I had seen in my life that were part of normal life and seemingly familiar but out of context or just under close examination would invoke a sense of fear for no apparent reason. One of the most immediate things this reminded me of was an old house we used to visit when I was younger which had wooden floors painted black and all of the wood/furniture was dark/dilapidated. Other things this reminded me included my Grandparents old house which is a very old and very large house in the middle of the countryside and has big black beams on every ceiling as well as strange old appliances like big metal irons, a loom, big book cases and a few other strange quirky little things that while being familiar and obviously ornamental always seemed a little out of place and strange to me especially in comparison to the quite modern flat that I lived in.

I would also compare the idea of uncanny stemming from something familiar to the way in which many good scary films have took familiar aspects from everyday life and re-shaped them in order to make them grotesque and scary but somehow believable. A clear example of this would be when horror films say things like "Based on a true story" and one that I find quite relevant is the repeated use of small children which you would usually consider to be quite innocent suddenly turning horrific and screaming/killing people violently such as the small girl in "The Grudge" or the creepy girl in "Silent Hill". Many creatures in horror films are also based on real animals so that they can stay somehow believable to the audience such as Alien being quite loosely based on an insect or a lot of films taking average people that would blend into society and making them a psychopath behind closed doors.

Considering the above points I would like my idea to reflect these ideas and hopefully be as effective in utilising the same techniques that I have highlighted.