Lauren's NEA blog

When experimenting with horror makeup we used a variety of resources such as flour, red food colouring, water and mud to create the fake blood and used the FX wax which allowed us to create the mould of the wound. Our idea was to have branches growing out of someone and we did this by getting sticks and leaves and using the wax to create a mould for them to be stuck into, once they were in place we used the wax to shape the wound around the sticks and leaves and used our fingers to smooth out the edges so that when we applied the blood it would look realistic. For the first injury we did it on the hand and had a stick coming out of it, to give this effect we used a larger stick and then used a smaller stick to be attached on the side of the hand to make it look like it had gone straight through. We then covered the wound in fake blood and added grass and mud to it. For the second injury, we used a twig with some leaves on it and secured it to the side of the arm, near the shoulder. ...

Considering my short film will be set at one continuous location I have decided it would be more realistic to have all of my characters in naturalistic clothing, this decision was made to make my film fit in with my naturalistic style. My main character will be wearing casual clothing, such as jeans, a black t-shirt and perhaps a jumper at some points. I think it would be effective to have an item of clothing in a bright colour to juxtapose the mise-en-scene to the overall message and actions within the film.   The makeup will also be naturalistic as this is a realistic short film. As well as this, it's important to have the makeup suitable for harsh lighting as this is something which I aspire to use within my short film, therefore the makeup has to still look natural under these lights, therefore, I will have to bear this in mind when deciding which make up the main character can wear. For the stranger, they will only ever be seen from the legs. therefore I have decid...

My short film requires two characters, one being the online 'stranger' and the other being the 'victim' of online stalking. As my short film planning process developed, I thought about using two online 'strangers' talking to just the one 'victim' to be a representation of how easy it is to talk to someone who you do not know, the victim assumes that they are talking to one person whereas the viewers know that they aren't therefore showing the overall message of the short film. When discussing this idea with my peers, I am still undecided on this aspect of my film however I do think this would be an effective 'spin' on the exsisting videos focussing on this subject. *UPDATE* After discussing this idea of using two antagonists and one victim, I think it would be more effective to keep to the original idea of having one protagonist and one antagonist. This will be more effective at conveying the overall message of my film as I think having two...

The main setting for the short film will be in the room with the laptop, to show how our lives evolve around technology and how we actually spend the majority of our day looking online. When thinking about the setting, it would be ideal to have a small cramped room however this may be difficult when filming, I will make the room appear to be small by using lots of close up shots as well as this I want to have depth to my shots and so I will do this by shooting through doorways, not only does this make the shot more interesting, it will also give an idea of the size of the room.  I want to have a small cramped room to act as a representation of the restrictions which talking online brings to people, we no longer properly interact with people, we just talk over a computer screen. The second setting will be in the main characters house, where we will see the intruder come in at the end of the film. This setting choice has been made to show how they now know wh...

Voice over script: Unnamed Protagonist: Social media is used by millions everyday. Allowing us to connect with those near and far. It's expanding all the time, new accounts, new friends, upload, like, retweet. The internet has a dark side too. A dark side which our parents cannot protect us from. A dark side, that we are exposed to. And you might not even know about it. But it's there. Plot outline- So far, the basic plotline for my short film is based around the dangers of the internet and how we never really know who we are talking to. The film will begin showing a POV shot from a yet unknown character, they will be looking at two adults leaving their house through the trees. We are then introduced to the protagonist of the story where they come home and see a note that their parents left them telling them that they will be out for a while. They then go upstairs and go on their laptop for a while, scrolling through their different social media accounts. They then leave th...

When considering the forms and conventions of films I will be using the genre rules for a thriller film, which are: Low saturated lighting, quick cuts, music adding to tension, shadows, extreme close ups, and to zoom in on the characters emotions, zooming in can also be used to focus on props which develop the narrative. As well as this, a lot of films have a subliminal message which is a feature that I aspire for my short film to include. My overall message from this creative piece will be that we can never be sure about who we are talking to, even if we think we are educated enough on the dangers of social media. Where are you planning to develop on existing forms and conventions? A conscious decision that I have made for my short film which will challenge the verbal forms and conventions of film as no speech will be used in my short film. The conversation between the two people will be shown through screen recordings and shots of the screen. I have made this decision to add to th...