Making a sound effect: A lift door opening

 

I began with 3 glasses.
 

After hitting each of them with my nail, I decided the two wine glasses were the best for the noise I was trying to create. I then filled them with water to see if that would make a difference.

After hitting them both again, I decided the smaller glass made a better sound as it made more of a rounded 'ding' type sound. I filled it with more water to see the effect this would have on the sound. It made it more compressed and faster, so a lot more like the 'ding' of lift doors. 

I tried to find something to hit it with that would make it even more like a 'ding' lift door sound. I tried it with a butter knife, but this was too thin so I tried it with the handle of the knife and this was the perfect sound.

I then put the sound I created over a clip from the TV show Friends of a lift door opening. Here is the final clip.

 

Se7en Opening Credits

Genre

'Se7en' is a psychological thriller. This can be identified from the opening credits alone, due to the many conformities of common conventions of the genre. The audience can gather from the trailer that the character has an obsession, in this case making their own adaptation of the Bible, as creating this is the main focus of the whole credits.

Mise-En-Scene

The main focus of the whole of the opening credits is the creating and altering of the book by the character. There are constant images of words from the Bible and people's eyes being crossed out. This gives the audience the impression that the character is making their own version of the Bible, and possibly that they have the intention to kill people.

The character is also shown removing their fingerprints with a small blade. This gives the impression that they have or will commit a crime, as well as indicating that the character is mentally disturbed/ill due to harming themselves voluntarily. This therefore conforms to common conventions of a psychological thriller.

Detailed drawings are also shown in the opening credits, suggesting that the character has thought out what they would like to add into their book and taken a lot of time to create these drawings. There are also continual flashes of pages of the book that the character is writing in, filled with hand written notes. This therefore shows an obsession, again conforming to common conventions of the genre.

Fast shots of the Bible are included throughout the credits, which relates to the title and plot of the film. The film was titled as 'Se7en' because it relates to the 7 Deadly Sins from the Bible, and the character goes round and murders people who have committed these sins.

Towards the end of the credits, there are short clips of the character using a needle and thread to sew together the pages of his book. This level of intricacy and care again shows the dedication and obsession he has for this book, but is also sinister as a needle could be used as a weapon.

Sound

The opening credits don't include diegetic sound, only a non-diegetic soundtrack. It begins at quite  a slow pace with lots of synthetic, low and loud sounds. This creates a sinister, foreboding effect. At the very start, there is a thunder clap type of sound. This introduces it as eerie and dark, creating an immediate response from the audience of the type of film being horror or thriller. As the soundtrack progresses, a synthetic drum sound is introduced as well as some uncomfortable creaking sounds. This makes it sound almost broken, which also adds to the dark, horrific impression the audience has. Fast sound changes are also used as some sound effects are unexpectedly played very fast, as well as occasionally hearing synthetic scratching/screeching noises, making the soundtrack sound ominous and disturbing, adding to the audience's impression of the thriller. Further through the soundtrack, more foreboding, sharp, uncomfortable sounds are added randomly, getting more intense and quick, creating tension. The amount and volume of the synthetic sounds fluxuates randomly throughout, which is unsettling for the audience as there are unexpected quiet and loud sections. The climaxes in the music are towards the middle and end of the credits, which goes with the shots used as here they are either the most horrific/intense or the most fast paced. It also makes it dramatic and creates tension and uncertainty for the film. Overall the sound for the opening credits is parallel to the Mise-En-Scene and conforms to common conventions of the genre of 'Se7en'.

Typography

Throughout the whole of the credits, two font styles are used. The first is used when displaying people's names. It looks handwritten and scratchy, so could be written by someone using something like an ink quill pen, but also almost like someone carved it using a sharp object such as a knife, which makes the audience find it sinister.

The second style of font is used when indicating titles, such as 'A film by' or 'Executive producers'. It is also used when displaying the title of the film. This font is slightly more organised but is still not quite perfect: it may be slightly smudged, or not quite straight. This is very contrasting with the other typography as it looks as if someone typed it on a typewriter, which shows it being thought out and planned carefully. The fact it is structured but not quite perfect could also relate to the mental health of the character, as he may look fine on the outside but he actually isn't.

The title of the film flashes to much larger than all the rest of the text in the credits. This emphasises its importance and makes it stand out.

Whenever any text appears on the screen, it glitches or moves, which is very unsettling and menacing, creating a sinister and unsettling effect. It could also again relate to the mental health of the character. The text appears and disappears quickly, again seeming like it's glitching which makes the audience unsettled yet excited. This is also parallel to the non-diegetic soundtrack, which is fast and adrenaline filled.

Practical Task- Practising making a wound

To practise making a wound I decided to use cotton wool, to be an alternative to latex as I didn't have any and it can be hard to find and some can be costly. I stuck the cotton wool down onto my hand using PVA glue. I stuck cotton wool on both sides of my hand to look as though it could be a cut or opened wound.



Next I added foundation to the cotton wool so that it would match my skin colour and therefore make it look more realistic. This was really difficult to do and didn't look as effective as I would have hoped as it was quite 3D. I would use a thinner layer of cotton wool when doing it in the future.



The next thing I did to make my wound look more realistic was add eyeshadow and a variety of different lipstick colours to make it look as though it was also bruised which would help it look more realistic.



I added cotton wool to the centre of the wound. I then added the fake blood into the centre of the cotton wool to make it look like an open cut that it still bleeding. The cotton wool absorbed this well to make it look as though it had begun to scab over and clot, but was still bleeding as well. I added fake blood around the edges of the cut as well to make it look more realistic.



Overall I think that this didn't look very realistic as it was very 3D as I added too much cotton wool to the edges of the wound therefore it was too thick. This made it look more fake. I thought that the fake blood was really effective though and worked really well absorbing into the cotton wool, giving it a darker colour, and directly onto the skin which made it look like a lighter colour and more of a fresh cut.

Creating a mask- Practical Task

To begin making my mask I put the mask on and cut around the shape that I wanted for my masks, using scissors, to fit over my head.



To create my mask I decided to cut slits for one eye and the mouth. So that the person in the mask is able to see out of the eye slit but it looks scarier as there is only one eye that is visible which makes the person wearing the mask scarier and mysterious. I put a slit in the mouth so it looks like the killer can still eat and breath.



I then decided to sew the left side of the mask using black thread to make it look as though the killers eye had been stitched up. This would have worked more effectively if I had used a thicker black, however I tried to overlap the thread to make it look as though it was thick.



I decided to use fake blood around the eyes and the mouth to look as though they were bleeding out, or look as though the killer had been eating guts, which makes it look more gory and scary. I did this by using a spray bottle of fake blood in some areas and in other areas I used cotton wool balls to dab the fake blood onto the sack. This wasn't as successful as I would have liked it to have been as it looked very red as though it was fresh blood and it would have looked more effective with a darker colour perhaps.



Finally I decided to rub some dirt into the mask to make it look worn and dirty. In the future I would add more dirt to emphasise this.



I then put the mask on the model and tied a string around the bottom to secure it and give it the final look. Overall I am quite happy with how my mask turned out but if I were to make it again I would rub more dirt into the mask all over rather than in one area to make it look more old and worn and add more stitching around the mask to make it look creepier. I would have also been more careful with where I added the blood to make it look more like blood was dripping from the eyes and the mouth.



Audience feedback

Some of the audience feedback that I received was to either hem or sew the mouth in some way so that the sack wouldn't begin to unravel and expose the nose. Also some of the other feedback that I got given was to so sew down the top of the mask to make it more of a rounded shape to fit the head better. The final piece of feedback that I got given was to add bruising and different shades of red blood to the mask to make it look more realistic.

The positive audience feedback was that they really liked the idea of rubbing the mask into dirt to make it look more worn and less perfect.

Making a Mask- Practical Task

For this task we were given a potato sack and were asked to transform it into a mask. We were allowed to do anything we liked with it.

Inspiration

I got my inspiration from these images:

I believe that these are very simple ways of making a creepy looking mask. The effect of the bloodied eyes and mouth, make the mask look like there is a face on it, therefore making it look doll or 'scarecrow' like. I also believe that this look doesn't require many materials or difficult procedures to produce.

 

Production

First of all, I laid all of my materials out on a table.

For my mask, all i needed was some fake blood, rope, tea/coffee and some scissors.

I then measured roughly the length that I wanted my mask to be and then cut off the excess. This was to be used as a 'tester' piece so that I could try different techniques to see which ones worked the best.

Next, I experimented with my tester piece of material by rubbing it in some dirt to make the mask look dirty and scruffy. At first, it looked good and effective, however, due to the material structure, the dirt did not stay on very well and after a few minutes, it looked like it did originally.

I then decided to test the best way to apply the blood. First of all, I squeezed a small amount out of the tube straight onto the mask and then blended it out using the end of the tube. This was the end result:

My next 'blood test' was to apply the blood exactly the same way as the last test but this time from the inside of the mask. This was because the effect that I wanted to create was as if the person wearing the mask was bleeding whilst wearing it.

The next test was applying the blood straight from the tube and then dabbing it with a tissue to create a faded effect.

The last blood test I did, was applying the blood straight from the tube but from a height. This was to try and create a 'splattered' effect. I then dabbed the blood a little with a tissue afterwards to create a more realistic effect.

I then turned my tester pieces of material inside-out to see what the tests would look like 'the other way'. Overall, I believe that they did not look as good as on the other side of the material. (top left: applied from the inside, top right: applied from the 'right' side, bottom left: 'splattered' effect, bottom right: 'dabbed' on).

Overall, my I believe that the best effect was the 'dabbing' effect mixed with applying it straight from the tube. This is because these two mixed together looked the most realistic for the look that I was going for.

My next set of tests was to dye the rope. Originally, the rope was white and didn't look bloody or dirty enough.

My first test was dying the rope with tea. To do this I put some water in a bowl and split open a teabag, putting the contents into the water. I then put the rope into the tea mixture and rubbed the tea granules onto the rope to add more colour.

The next test was dying the rope in coffee. To do this I put a small amount of water into a bowl and added lots of granulated coffee. I then put the rope into the coffee and rubbed some of the undissolved granules onto the rope.

Next I put some fake blood on half of each test to make it look bloodied and more gory (top left: coffee with blood, top right: tea with blood bottom left: coffee without blood, bottom right: tea without blood).

Overall, I preferred the effect of the coffee with blood as I believed that it looked most effective.

Next I started the 'real thing'. First of all, I put some blood straight from the tube onto roughly where the mouth of the person would go.

I then 'dabbed' around it with some tissue and added some more straight from the tube in the middle of the already existing blood and some more around it. Then, using the tissue with the excess blood on it, I 'dabbed' some of it roughly where the rope would go on the neck to make it seem as if the persons neck was bleeding slightly as well.

I then decided to to the same thing at the top of the mask to look as if the person has a head injury.

I then dyed the rope in the coffee and added fake blood to it using the same method as I did for my test.

I then put my mask on my model:

Post Production

Next, I edited the shots on my phone to make the colours look more realistic and to make the overall appearance appear more professional and realistic.

First of all, I added a filter to the photographs to make the blood look a deeper red, rather than a bright red. This made the blood look more realistic.

Next, I made the image darker. This was again to make the blood look a deeper shade of red. I also did this to remove any other bright colours. Usually in horror films, there are no bright colours or lighting. This is to make the scene look dull and more sinister.

I then removed some of the colour in the image, again for reasons mentioned above.

To experiment, I added some more colour in to see what the effect of it would be. Overall, I preferred the image with less colour as it looked more fitting for my inspiration and the 'look' that I was aiming for.

Here is an image of the saturation levels in the image.

I then applied these adjustments to all of the other photographs that I took. Here is the final result:

Peer Feedback

When I presented my final product to my class, they had both good and constructive points about it. Overall, they liked the use and positioning of the blood and the overall inspiration of my mask, however, to improve, they suggested that I research how to tie a noose style knot to make it seem more realistic.