Lights Out (2016) Film Destruction

Synopsis -
"In a textiles warehouse, Esther (Lotta Losten) sees a silhouette of a woman with monstrously long fingers when she turns the lights off, but sees nothing when the lights are on. She warns owner Paul (Billy Burke) about the apparition and leaves. Paul is later dragged into the darkness and gruesomely killed by the woman.
Paul's stepdaughter Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) lives alone in an apartment, away from her mother, Sophie (Maria Bello), and brother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman). Sophie has a mental illness and depression that has resurfaced, in which she talks to an apparently imaginary "friend." When Martin sees the apparition with his mom, his fear gives him insomnia.
Because he fell asleep in homeroom for three days, his teacher sent him to the nurses office, where his Child Protection Services advisor, Emma (Andi Osho) calls Rebecca to the school. Rebecca takes Martin home, but after a fight with their mother, she takes him to her to the apartment to protect him. That night, she awakens to scratching by the silhouetted woman - who almost attacks her, though Rebecca manages to turn the light on, making the figure disappear. The next morning, Rebecca finds what the woman was scratching into her floor: the name "Diana." She recalls her experiences with Diana from her own childhood, and the reason she left when her father abandoned them.
That night, Sophie has a movie night with Martin, but includes her imaginary friend, frightening him. She tells him a story about Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey), a friend she had when she was in a mental institution for her depression. Diana had an unusual condition that made her skin light-sensitive. Martin looks up to see Diana crouched above him and runs to turn on the light, and Diana throws Sophie out of the way to get to Martin. She fails and Martin escapes to Rebecca's.
Rebecca confronts Sophie about Diana but she denies the accusation. Rebecca, her lover Bret (Alexander DiPersia), and Martin decide to stay overnight to protect Sophie. Rebecca goes to her mom's bedroom door to reconcile when Sophie secretly passes her a note saying "I need help", before Diana tugs her back into the darkness. Rebecca realizes that her mother is being controlled by Diana, and turns on all the lights in the house to keep her away.
Knowing their intentions, Diana baits Rebecca and Martin into the basement by turning off all the lights. Bret is attacked but escapes and contacts the police. Rebecca realizes that while Diana disappears under normal light conditions, the use of a black light can allow them to see her. This black light allows Rebecca to discover that Diana can be materialized. Meaning that when Diana is exposed to first black light, then ordinary light, she will not just suddenly disappear. Her skin will actually burn. Rebecca discovers scrawled writings along a basement wall, explaining how Diana will not let anyone take Sophie. The writings on the wall reveal that Diana killed Rebecca's father, and will not allow anyone to take Sophie away.
Bret discovers that Rebecca and Martin were in the basement, and as he was trying to open the door, Diana attacks Bret. Bret barely making it to his car, leaves the house to fetch for help.
A pair of police officers arrive, responding to what they believe to be a domestic disturbance. The lead officer is attacked and killed by Diana, but not before freeing Rebecca and Martin from the basement. The officer's partner calls for backup before pursuing Diana further into the house. Rebecca sends Martin outside to Bret, and goes back inside to rescue her mother. Diana is about to kill Rebecca when Sophie arrives brandishing a pistol. Sophie exclaims that she's the only connection Diana has that tethers her to the human world. She sacrifices herself with a bullet to the head in an effort to save her children, causing Diana to burn away and disappear.
Afterwards, the police carry away Sophie's body, with the distraught Rebecca, Martin, and Bret at the ambulance, as they embrace and vow to stay together. The lights in the ambulance momentarily flicker, but Bret dismisses it, to Rebecca and Martin's relief."

Lights Out (2016 film) n.d. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 15th November 2016. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_Out_(2016_film)

Producers -
New Line Cinema - "New Line Film Productions Inc., often simply referred to as New Line Cinema, is an American-French film studio founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as a film distribution company, later becoming an independent film studio."
New Line Cinema. n.d. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 23rd November 2016. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Line_Cinema

RatPac-Dune Entertainment - "RatPac Entertainment (trading as RatPac-Dune Entertainment) is an American motion picture production and financing company formed in a merger by producer-director Brett Ratner, his partner billionaire James Packer, and Dune Entertainment's Steven Mnuchin, which provides funds to a number of Warner Bros. films. The company is the result of a 2013 merger between RatPac Entertainment and Dune Entertainment, following a collapse in negotiations between Dune and 20th Century Fox – which led the company to close a deal with Warner Bros. instead, replacing Legendary Pictures as Warner's key co-financing partner. Dune had been co-financing Fox films since 2006."
RatPac-Dune. n.d. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 23rd November 2016. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RatPac-Dune_Entertainment
Atomic Monster Productions - "Atomic Monster Productions is an American film production company, founded by director James Wan. The company was founded in 2014 and is known for producing horror films such as Annabelle, The Conjuring 2, Lights Out and the upcoming film Annabelle 2."


Productions of Note -

Annabelle (2014) - Budget 6.5 million USD - Box Office 256.9 million USD
The Conjuring 2 (2016) - Budget 40 million USD - Box Office 320.2 million USD
Lights Out (2016) - Budget 4.9 million USD - Box Office 148.1 million USD



Atomic Monster Productions. n.d In Wikipedia. Retrived 23rd November 2016. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Monster_Productions


Distributors -
Warner Bros. - "Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (often referred to as Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros., Warner Brothers and also shortened to WB) is an American entertainment company and a division of Time Warner, headquartered in Burbank, California. Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America."
Warner Bros. n.d. In Wikipedia. Retrieved 23rd November 2016. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros.

Timeline:
0:00-0:09 - The scene starts off with the man walking down a dark path in the warehouse. The sound of his footsteps emphasize that no one is around and that he is alone because you can only hear his footsteps and keys. The is a close-up shot used to show the man turning his head. The scene opens with a man walking down a dark corridor. 

0:10-0:24 The man carries on walking down the path ,the low key lighting and music stay the same. there is a fade out and close up of the mans face. 

0:025-0:39 There is still lowkey lighting but this is the point where the music starts to get quicker and louder emphasizing that something is going to happen. there is a close up of the mans face again when he realizes that the creature is stood in front of him which is used to show his emotions and in this case the close up shot showed us the panic on the mans face. Then there is a long shot showing the creatures body standing up in the spotlight. this spotlight is used to show the creature more clearly. The lights then turn off.

0:40-0:42 The lights switch back on again and the creature is shown to have got closer to the man. The music changes as well and gets quicker. 

0:42-0:53 There is an over shoulder shot of the man looking around for the creature that has now disappeared and so the music starts to build up tension that something bad is about to happen. 

0:53- 1:02 There is a close up of the mans face looking around  the women as well. He is also shown running away in the direction he came from and trips and falls with the sound of his keys falling out of his pocket. 

1:02- 1:11 The man quickly gets up as he notices the wound on his leg but still try's to get away into his office where he locks himself in and switches the main lights on. This instantly changes the low key lighting to high key lighting. 

1:37 - 2:00  The man walks towards his office window to look for the creature but realizes its to dark and turns around to grab a baseball bat for protection if the creature decided to come back at him again. there is a close up shot of his confused face.

 2:00-2:09 The lights in the office begin to flicker and this is when the man knows he is in trouble. Dialogue is used here as well. As the lights start to flicker the music starts to build up and the man starts to back away walking backwards before the lights go out.

 2:09-2:14 The door knob is shown to be titled and the door then opens with the man on the other side of it.

2:14- 2:18 A shadow moves across the screen and the man is shown to be holding his baseball bat in the corner scared and confused and then there is a loud bang.

2:18-2:32 this is where the music starts to build up again and the lighting becomes lowkey. 
2:32- 2:35 There is a shot of the rest of the warehouse.

2:35- 2:42 There is a shot of the man on the floor with blood on his face. This shows that he has been killed by the creature but the scene leaves the story line on a cliff hanger as to why he died. as its a horror theme the opening scene didn't end on a happy ending. There is a fade out in to a blank screen.

2:42-2:50 There is a blank screen and then the title scene appears. 

Analysis

Setting:

The opening scene is set in a large warehouse. This means that its big and may be in the middle of no where. This links back to the horror theme as cries or screams would not be heard by anyone. This builds a much more scarier effect that the guy is alone with no one around to help him. The warehouse is very dark as well and this creates the fear of the unknown and what's hiding around the corner. Also in the warehouse there are a bunch of mannequins which builds up tension where you think they are real humans but there actually lifeless.

Lighting

The lighting in the opening scene is low key lighting. Around the warehouse are small spotlights which are used to highlights the important bits such as the creature being stood in the spotlight. High key lighting is used when the man enters his office and turns his lights on but this only lasts a few seconds before the lights are turned off again. This could show that when he entered his office the audience felt layer back and thought all the creepiness had ended until the lights switch off again and tension builds up as to what will happen next. 

 Costume:
The man in the opening scene seems to be wearing casual work clothes. He is wearing a shirt and trousers which makes him look like a stereotypical working man. However the creature is shown to be naked wearing no clothes, which may interpret that its a ghostly figure. It makes the scene more scary because its not what you would expect to see. The creature had long black hair that was let loose and was not tied up which may also show how pure and natural the creature was. 

Sound:
The sound in the scene builds up creating tension and making the audience aware that something bad is about to happen. When this happens the music then stops completely and then starts again and builds up slowly. This pretty much happens during the entire film opening. Special effects such as the creatures screams and sound of the man walking are also used to show what going on and making everything more clear to the audience. 

Movement:
There is a lot angled shots used to shown the movements of the characters in the opening scene. these include a canted angle shot of the man running to his office.

Focus group feedback:

• Adam - "This film opening is very effective because already it has many jump scares and this is what is needed in the horror theme to engage a viewer to keep on watching and from watching the opening scene, I would carry on watching the film."

• Ellie -  "This film opening is very good because it sets the scene and the setting really well and is easy to understand and watching it puts me on the edge of my seat already."

• Katy -  "I enjoyed watching this and I think its effective because it leaves a mystery and makes the viewers want to carry on watching so having a good film opening builds suspense and makes the viewers like me want to watch on."

• Helena -  "This opening film definitely had more jump scares than I expected and already shows a lot of action going on making it more interesting and putting me at the edge of my seat."

What I have learnt:

I have learnt that the tracking shot used in this film opening is effective as it gets a different angle of the setting and makes the scene flow easily. Other than showing whats going on in one long shot, it also sets the setting well. Also I have learnt that the jump scares are effective and are mostly created by the diegetic sound. 

Main Task Treatment

Working Title: Evangeline

Genre: Horror

Central Theme: Our film will explore the themes of jealousy and childhood innocence. It will explore these themes through the use of hypnotism and possession of the children showing that they are vulnerable and powerless suggesting their innocent nature.

Synopsis: A girl whose parents died in a tragic car crash was left orphaned at aged 5. She left the orphanage to seek a new life of her own but now finds herself, aged 10, residing in the woods not far from the place of the accident. The lack of company in the woods leads the girl to begin to wonder what else there could be to life. This is when she turns to witchcraft. When an old man is walking his dog a sudden flash of the girl catches him by surprise. As he goes to find out more he trips and falls unconscious. Little does he know that this is the beginning of the end.

Pitch: Our film will be a 15 rated however, our specific target audience will be ages 15-18. We chose to aim our film towards this age range because when research the BFI Statistical Yearbook we found that the top performing 15 rated film was of the horror genre. This tells us that this age category are particularly interested in this genre meaning that we will create a higher box office gross from this production. Our film will be different to other films as it will use a mixture of Point Of View shots from the old man and third party shots. This will allow the audience to view both perspectives and increase the audience participation in the film keeping them engaged throughout. We will also use a mixture of hand held camera shots and fixed shots. This will also help the audience to feel the same emotions as the character increasing the intensity of the film. Finally, we are subverting the stereotype that it is always a female character that is in distress as we have a male who is playing the role of 'damsel in distress'.

Characters: 

• Patrick (Old Man) - Patrick is a retired policeman who lives on his own with his dog dave. He has no children and often can feel alone. This character is one of the main roles in this film. When casting this part we will need to find a actor who is aged between 65-75, has grey hair and has previous acting ability to ensure they are capable of learning the lines and being able to easily follow instructions and pick up cues easily.

• Evangeline - Often referred to as 'Evie' this young girl has become a master of witch craft after the loss of her parents at age 5. She soon becomes jealous of other children who have parents to care for them and so in the middle of the night she takes the children from their rooms and takes them to her home in the forrest where she hypnotises them. As this character is one of the main roles we will need to carefully select our actor in order to make the film feel authentic. The character of Evie is aged 11 so our actor ideally needs to be aged 10-12. The actor also need to be able to convincingly portray someone with spiritual power and be able to pick up lines quickly and deliver them with enthusiasm and power. We specifically would like our actor to have red hair as it not commonly seen in films. This will also help our film be set apart from others.

• Bella (Child) - Bella is a child who has been taken by Evie. She is Aged 7 and is clever, confident and witty. She has managed to escape the spell from Evie and tries to help the other children escape but her plans fail when they all turn against her. For this character we need a girl aged 6-8 with a fiery personality. 

• Peter (Child) - Peter is an 8 year old boy who is outgoing and willing to take on a challenge. Under the spell of Evie he becomes very obedient and is one of her top followers. When we are casting our actors we need to look for a boy aged 7-9 preferably with light brown hair. The actor will need to be willing to wear a long white t-shirt that looks like a dress as it is an important part of the role. 

• Katie (Child) - Katie is a happy yet shy 9 year old who loves to dance. Her selfless nature makes her an easy target for Evie allowing her to be taken control of easily. For the character of Katie our actor needs to be aged 8-10 preferably fairly small and slim built with blonde hair. 

• Chloe (Child) - Chloe was the first person to be taken by Evie and is also 11 years old. She and Evie used to be best friends before the accident and Evie soon became very jealous of Chloe. She is Evie's closet follower and is left in charge of the others when Evie goes out to get more children. Our actor for this character will need to be aged 10-12 and be fairly tall. 

Film Opening Sequence: 

• The scene opens with a long shot of a car driving towards the camera in the the dark with the headlights on.

• The shot cuts to the man getting out his car and getting his dog out of the car. 

• The man locks his car and begins to walk off into the darkness with his dog until they can't be seen. 

• As the man walks through a pathway of trees he hears footsteps behind him. He turns to look and nothings there.

• As the man is facing backwards the camera cuts to a front view of the man and his dog and we see he girl run in front of them and off into the woods. 

• This startles the dog and makes him chase after the girls into the bushes.

• The man calls after his dog and after no response follows him into the woods to try and find him. 

• Whilst doing so the ma trips and hits his head on the ground knocking him unconscious.

• The scene cuts to a black screen.

• There is then a blurry long shot that pans left to right then back to centre and then a tilt from centre to up to down to centre.

• We then change to a third person view of the man who is tied to a tree. The man shouts for help and no one replies.

• We then cut to a shot of a tree with the word "Evangeline" engraved on it. There is a child's laugh in the background. 

• We go back to the man tied to the tree and the abducted children and Evie are slowly walking towards him.

• There is a point of view shot from the man of the children getting closer and closer and then they begin to run at him.

• The screen goes blank again and there is a shout from the man and the laughter of children. 

Film Techniques: 

When filming the opening to ur film we will use many different types and lengths of shot. For example - 

• Point of View shot - This will be used to show the Point of view from Patrick. This allows the audience to connect with him and feel his emotions creating a more scary and really atmosphere.

• Long shot - We will use ling shots to create a sense of space which therefore makes Patrick seem more vulnerable as he is alone in a large space. This makes the audience feel worried for him creating a tense atmosphere.

• Close Up - We will use close ups to show the emotions and facial expressions of the characters allowing the audience to engage with characters.

• Canted Angle - We will use Canted angle shots when the man is lying on the floor. This will be effective as it creates a disorientating effect for the audience. 

• And other basic shot types.

Production Considerations:

• We will need to consider our location of filming as we want to film in the woods. 

• When finding our actors we will need permission from parents as the film will be on YouTube.

• We will also need to think about safety. For example a when running through woods their could be trip hazards.

Preliminary Task - Reflection

Planning

Before starting our own plan, firstly, we watched a few film openings to give us an idea of what we needed to do to make it look like an effective film opening instead of a trailer. The planning process consisted of maintaining a props list of what was going to be used during the task. It also involved creating a storyboard so we knew exactly what shots and camera angles we needed to film. Also we needed a script so we knew what was going to be said in the video. Before  we started filming, we had to arrange a date to as well as where and how we were going to film. All of this planning would have enabled us to film our preliminary task productively. 

The planning benefit us in ways in which we knew exactly what we were doing and stayed on task throughout. It helped us because we were both positive to what we were doing and got it done without any big problems. Our script helped because actors knew exactly what they were saying. The storyboard helped because we knew exactly what shots would be coming after another and the props list enabled us to get everything we needed on the day.  If a plan was not made then it would have lead to more problems.

Production 

During the production process, We filmed our preliminary task and it went according to plan. We had a lot of time to edit our film which made it better.  The plan we organized before hand helped us to manage our time and film the production well. However we were not able to film on the day we agreed to purely because of the weather conditions which would of had an effect on us because our film was outside. Also, our original plan of the film was to have the car driving but we were unable to get hold of one of the actors therefore had to include extra shots to make up for this. 

Technology

We used a DSLR camera to film our preliminary task. I was able to learn how the camera worked as i had never used one before. this helped me when filming specific camera shots, such as a close up. To edit, we used a software called adobe premier pro. Before using this software we watched clips and made notes on them to give us a guideline before jumping straight to the editing. this was beneficial because we used our time productively when editing instead of sitting around not knowing what to do because we had pre arranged notes before hand. This was a helpful source as we are going to be using this software to edit our main film treatments in the upcoming future. 

 

Problem Solving
During the process, we didn't stick to the according date that we were meant to film on, as this did not suit everyone's needs. Therefore to overcome this we compromised and arranged a later date which did put us behind but we got it all done in the day which enabled us to have more time to edit. 
During the editing process we were unable to make a title for our task.  As well as making a title we also found it difficult to mute scenes where music was not needed. To overcome this problem we used help from our teacher and the internet. I think that the date we picked and location helped during the production because we were not in a public area therefore had no time limit to filming the production so was able to get it all done within the day.

Team work 

My partner and i worked well as a team and contributed evenly to the task. We both took it in turns to edit our work and helped film the production as well, making it more fair. This made it a lot easier as we both shared roles and got it done on time.

Overall, i think i contributed evenly to the production of being a director and producer. We reached all deadlines and had more time to edit and export our production which improved it as we had more time to explore the software and use new skills that we did not know of before. I think both my partner and  worked productively because we did not have to rush and finished early. During the process I think  contributed evenly to editing and filming the production.