Directors notes

Above are the notes I was given in post by Jordan. As with our previous films he has allowed me a great deal of creative freedom and leaves me to get on with it, satisfied that we share a similar vision for the end result. 

Shoot Diary

Day 1

I arrived late to the shoot having had to wait on the torches to be delivered. Though I did bring sound gear the lack of dialogue/sync sound freed me up to lend and extra hand and I was chosen to play the hooded character as I was taller and also not wearing wellies, which would somewhat detract from the creepiness of the character.

Despite spraying it black the robe still looked like a cheap halloween costume, which it was. The Following day I brought along a sith dressing gown/robe to wear over it which was an improvement.

I was also able to provide a Moroccan dagger for the art department, which looks ideally sacrificial with its modestly ornate wooden hilt and rusted blade.

Day 2

We had all been looking forward to this as it featured a pigs head on a spike. I recorded the sound of the head as it was placed on the stick but it did not produce the gory impalement I had hoped for.

We found an ideal clearing, which already had partially erected fences made out of branches. Amy did a great job adding to the existing enclosure, creating a unique symbol on the ground that combined the iconography of pagan, celtic and satanic worship.

While this was set up we went to get a pick up of the previous day, my character walking past the first torch with a smoking thurible. To create the smoke we heated pingpong balls wrapped with a foil chimney, which gives out a dense but short lasting burst. The first tested bomb dissipated in the wind nicely, which left me unprepared when I didn't hold my breath as the second in the thurible shot straight up in my face, giving me a dose of mustard gas. This coupled with me tripping up over a branch make for an amusing gag reel.

The ritual scene itself proved difficult, as the torches were hard to control, with the lighter used instead of oil evaporating too quickly. This meant that it got too dark before we could complete all the shots, and so another day of shooting will be required.

Day 3

The final pick-up day was efficient as everyone knew what shots were still needed and the limited time frame we would have. The new pigs head was an improvement, with a nasty gash on the top of its skull making it all the more unpleasant, and we used oil in the torches this time so they stayed alight much longer.

During the clearing set-up I wandered off to try and capture some atmos tracks, using the Zoom again. These were an improvement over my previous attempts at Whitely woods, though it is possible to make out the sounds of a very distant road. There were also planes flying overhead fairly frequently, but this time I captured the low rumble in the hopes of enhancing it with EQ to ominous effect. The birds also sounded better here, and I captured the caw of a crow which I had hoped to find someway or another.

One of the downsides of having better lit torches was that when it came to filming the shot of them extinguishing themselves we were left waiting sometime. The final shot is of my character stood by the torch as it goes out. Given the potential time we would be waiting I decided it could be more menacing to extinguish the torch myself. To aid me in this I doused my glove in water to help starve the flame, though it still took several attempts to perfect (one more for the gag reel!)

Cinematic Inspirations for characterising an isolated/haunted woodland

What follows are brief analyses of the films that first sprang to mind for research once we had come up with our treatment, and ways in which they may inform our film.

EVIL DEAD (1981)

The audience is introduced to the evil that inhabits the woods during the opening titles, when a swooping point of view glide-cam (a camera mounted on a piece of would with two operators running with it) veers between trees and over the leaf strewn, misty ground. Suspense is subsequently built through the score in fairly traditional horror style, with string drones increasing in pitch to a crescendo point to accentuate the (false?) tension. Reverberated percussive shakes and taps are also used to spook as well as the sound of crickets and whispers combined with low oscillated tones and winds. Once the mayhem begins it becomes a truly uncomfortable experience to watch. The gross-out levels of gore, whilst a little ridiculous and over the top, combined with an unrelenting score and the incessant screaming of the possessed characters becomes a barrage on the senses that, like the characters' isolated situation. is inescapable .

As a side note I can remember seeing a countdown of the greatest horror films in my early teens featuring an interview with either the sound designer or Sam Raimi explaining how an apple was used in place of an ankle when it is stabbed with a pencil to create that awful crunching sound, one of my first insights into the trickery of sound design.

EVIL DEAD (2013)

Upon watching the remake I realised the opening scene bares great similarity to a sequence in the script for our 10 minute film, though Jordan hasn't scene it so it is purely coincidental. It opens with a girl running through the woods before she is knocked out by the butt of a rifle. We are then taken to a basement where she is locked up and tortured by a family member, for having killed another. This is strikingly similar to what happens in ours so a slight rewrite may be considered to alter ours. The opening does feature some good camera techniques, with sun rays piercing through misty trees, and close ups shifting in and out of focus, with a low angle track from behind the character, something we have used in our 5 minute piece. There is also a homage to the original film in the form of the evil glide cam. Musically it is farely standard horror fare that echoes the original, with drones increasing in pitch to a crescendo and typical piano lines that switch between eerie and emotive as necessary. During the tree-rape scene the branches sound elasticated as they constrict, it sounds a little unnatural but something more subtle would be useful in bringing our own forest to life. This film makes up for the lack of bizarre humour inherent in the original with excessive amounts of bloody gore, and stands up well enough in its own right.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

This is among my favourite moments in cinema, and is in equal parts haunting, disturbing and beautiful.
When the inclusion of a cloaked, venetian masked wearing character swinging a thurible was suggested for our piece my memory instantly flashed to the master of ceremonies in this chilling scene, and it is almost a verbatim copy. The camera enters the ceremony with Tom Cruises character and begins to circle the ritual of naked women. The eerie music and chanting gives the effect of being diagetic, with the blindfolded keyboardist seen to be playing the stark string sections. There is also underlying timpani percussion which cannot be seen however and the creation of what I originally thought to be some kind of bile chanting leaves the possibility of its diegesis dubious. Jocelyn Pook's composition features a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy played backwards.
An English Translation:
And God told to his apprentices...I gave you a command...to pray to the Lord for the mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, the search, the leave and the forgiveness of the sins of God's children. The ones that pray, they have mercy and they take good care of this holy place.
This generally creates an ethereally morbid atmosphere, although the moments when it shifts into a major key do give it a more heavenly tone appropriate to the nature of this quasi-religious sex ceremony.
Beneath the veneer of the masks the sinister nature of this secret society is heavily implied throughout the rest of the film, to the extent that conspiracy theorists believe Kubrick's death five days after completing his cut can be attributed to his insightful depiction of illuminati symbology and practices.


Kill List (2011)

What really sets Kill List apart from other horrors is the believable realism grounded in its first act, through the authentic deliverance of naturalistic dialogue by actors perfectly cast in their respective roles. With its unhurried realist approach allowing for the tense relationship between Jay (Neil Maskell) and his Wife (MyAnna Buring), and later his former partner Gal (Michael Smiley), to be explored with lingering close-ups and jump cuts there is little to indicate this will be anything other than a typical British social drama. The only sinister foreshadowings to sow the seeds of unease come in the form a few periodic ominous tones to keep one from getting too immersed in the nuanced family life, and the carving of a symbol in the back of a mirror, something easily missable and forgotten on a first viewing. The second act becomes bleaker however as the two hit men embark on a road trip to take out their targets. Their contractors are immediately intimidating, with their chosen meeting place being an imposing hotel that fills the frame in dominance. It's clear from their mannerism that they're powerful men, and the score begins to use disjunct strings and percussion to reflect the discomfort of the situation. After dispatching a target and uncovering a child porn stash they confront 'the librarian' responsible for the collection.

This scene is made all the more tense by its use of silence in the score, and the subsequent impact sounds are all the more painful in their loudness. The visuals are sparing with the close ups, leaving most of the hand-maiming to just out of frame until the money shot. As with Sightseers (2012) Martin Pavey's sound design in Wheatley's films leaves little to the imagination, with gore and impact sounds foregrounded prominently in the mix, something I tend to emulate in my own works.
The third act is where the film really devolves into a horror, with their final hit on a politician unearthing a human sacrifice ritual on his estate. On second viewing I realised the ritual scene is almost identical to how I envisioned ours, from the flickering torches visible through the trees to the gradual build up of haunting voices and tribal drums as they approach the clearing, so perhaps I need to rethink my approach a little, especially considering this is also filmed in and around Sheffield. The final twisted reveal of the film recalls not only Wickerman (1973), in that the main character has been manipulated from the off for the purpose of a cultish ritual, but also parallels the influence and menace of the clandestine powerful secret society in the aforementioned Eyes Wide Shut. 

Wickerman (1973)

One cannot hope to make a film with any sort of cultish ritual without paying Wickerman its due. One of my favourite horrors, though it doesn't build scares in the same ways others in the genre do, instead there is a constant air of strangeness as the mystery unfolds amongst the quaint townsfolk. The score is used in a manner that both evokes the pagan nature of the villagers whilst underpinning the uncertainty of the protagonists investigation, using a mixture of English and Scottish folk music, with flutes, fiddles, bagpipes, harps and traditional drums primarily used at intervals as a new plot element is discovered.
The day of the Mayday celebrations becomes increasingly sinister, as the detective fails to start his plane and is watched from afar by the townsfolk, now adorning somewhat terrifying animal masks, who duck away behind the wall before they can be seen.

After infiltrating the parade it turns out (shock horror) that he is in fact the intended sacrifice and has been played from the offset, and the film iconically ends in a fervorous sing song for all concerned as he is burned alive in the titular pyre. There is an ominous marching drum played as he is lead before the wickerman and realises in horror what his fate will be that is very befitting of the build up to such an execution.

In the 2006 remake the eerie build up of suspense through the peculiarly benevolent behaviour of the townsfolk in the wake of a disappearance/murder was instead replaced by one of Nicolas Cage's most outlandish performances, with no woman (or bee) safe from his rampage. Enjoy.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The ever theatrical Tim Burton shrouds the western woods of Sleepy Hollow with gratuitous amounts of smoke and lightning. The camera navigates the tree lines with side-angle tracking shots at various distances, sometimes swaying behind trees adding a voyeuristic element. The trees themselves are bare and wintery, often silhouetted against the sky, which is also reflected in the desaturated use of colour. Little is done sonically to characterise the woods, and suspense is drawn instead from Danny Elfman's typically gothic score, both dark and humorous, that compliments Burton's directing so well.


The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

This scene gives the impression of approaching evil through a camera trick by zooming in whilst tracking away from the focal point, which would be an effective way for us to enter our woods/ritual scene. The leaves are also blown with an accompanying wind sound and the earsplitting screech of the ring wraith that can only mean something bad is about to emerge.  

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)

This scene is swathed in blue lighting to evoke nighttime, however it comes across as a little too artificial, or at least extremely well moonlit. Again there is a great deal of mist shrouding a menacing hooded character. I'm a big fan of the way it silently glides across the forest floor before becoming upright, however this menacing effect is somewhat diminished when you realise that for Voldemort to approach Harry like that, Professor Quirrell would have had to have been walking backwards. This scene features a typical John Williams full orchestra score that makes everything feel bold and dramatic, but in the case of building a magical world of wonder he was the right man for the job.

Whitley woods sound recording recce

Equipment:
                   Zoom H4N Recorder
                   Wendt Audio Mixer
                   Sennheiser 416 Microphone
                   Aquarian Hydrophone

Having been several times before I chose to come here based on its proximity to my house and for the fantastic entrance formed by branches entwined into an arching tunnel, something I thought could perhaps be incorporated into our film.

The problem with it being in close proximity to the city is the drone of traffic still carries through when trying to record an atmos. The built in mics on the Zoom are extremely convenient and negate the necessity for bringing along a Rode NT4 aswell as a 416 however. I think to capture a truly peaceful and isolated woodland atmos I will have to drive to somewhere far more remote and at night time to minimise the disturbance of passing cars. There were also frequent planes flying overhead which didn't help, and the birds seemed to have taken a vow of silence, so nothing usable was captured with regard to atmospheres.

Instead I set about obtaining sound effects of rustling bushes and snapping twigs with the help of a friend.

I gathered some usable material however I was made all the more conscious of the background drone of the city thanks to the superior headphone volume the Zoom has over the Marantz.

I had hoped to characterise the woods in our piece and stir unease through the creaking of the trees themselves, and attempted to record this using a contact mic on fallen trees whilst my assistant bent and crumpled the rotting bark. This did not quite have the desired effect of a drawn out groan, and my assistants movements were audible at times. I may need to research the types of trees with creaking properties or alternately manipulate creaking wood sounds with some EQ and pitch shifts.

This was not an all together successful outing but did prove an insightful learning curve.

Outibridge Recce

We set out a day later than originally planned, which was beneficial as it rained the entire day previously, however I had a prior engagement and had to leave earlier than the rest of group.

My initial thoughts were that the location was not isolated enough, as we wandered reasonably close to the town and could still see farmhouses nearby. It was not until after I had to leave that the group made their way up the hill to the more secluded woods, so I am unsure of their acoustic properties, however the pictures do look promising.

Sound Map

Treatment for Brief Exercise

Crew:
 Jordan Deakin – Director
Paul Manning – Producer
Luke Harrison – Cinematography
Joel Danby-Irons – Sound Design
Lewis Hague – Editor
Amy Jackson – Art Director

Working Title: Into The Woods Length: 5-7 Minutes

Premise: An exploration of an isolated woodland area and the secrets deep within.


Synopsis:
The film opens with an establishing wide shot of the open fields with the outskirts of the woodland area at the far side. Everything is calm and peaceful at first but a flickering light can be seen from within the depths of the woods. We follow this into the woods to reveal a flaming torch still alight, evidence that someone or something has been there.
In the background, further into the depths of the woods a second flickering light can be seen. Upon further investigation we realise a trail of beacons are leading deeper and deeper into the woods, eventually reaching a clearing. A circle of torches illuminates the clearing, highlighting a wooden spike in the centre of the circle. A rotting human head sits upon the spike, at the base of the spike a satanic symbol is displayed. It is apparent that a ritual for the occult has recently taken place. As we explore the area further the paraphernalia from the ritual can be seen scattered around the clearing; blood stains, strange markings on trees, and various weapons. As we are exploring the scene a strange presence can be felt, twigs snap, movements in the bushes and unsettling strange noises. Suddenly, one by one the torches of the circle extinguish, plunging the clearing into the embrace of the woods darkness. Looking back along the line of beacons that have guided us this deep into the woods, the torches that mark the path back to safety go out one by one, leaving us lost deep in the woods, with no way of escape.


Visual Realisation:
An exploration of a woodland area that will use both sound and camera to show it to an audience in a way it has not been seen. A minimalistic approach will help create and atmospheric and tense piece and the camera will utilise shooting at a higher frame rate so in the edit it seems to almost glide through the location. Dark and gritty in colour and in visual style.


Statement Of Intent:
To create a suspenseful piece that will keep the audience on their toes, guessing what will be displayed in front of them next.