Pre-production Week 5

A page from the storyboard

This is pre-production week 5. Another slow week. Most of the preparations should be done by now although I don't think we're not even close to it (I'll talk about this in the next post). We also managed to cast a new actress for the lead (and only) role. Locations are mostly secured too.

Production Schedule 1

Production Schedule 2

One thing I am impressed by is how our group manage the timetable. It was done quickly and efficiently.

Filming starts next week, Hopefully it will go smoothly.

Every Frame a Painting - The Curse of the Jump Scare

For many audience members today, the term 'scary' has a completely different definition. For some, it seems that the scare level is measured by how many times a loud noise and sound effect made them jump in their seat. This is the curse of the jump scare. It is the single easiest scare to accomplish. There is no real effort put into it and the exact same technique is used every time. All sound suddenly drains from the movie. No lines. No music. Then suddenly an ear-piercing jolt reigns through the theatre. Everyone jumps because an extremely loud noise just happened. Often it is revealed to be the character's friends or some other type of false scare.

When an absurd noise is used in false scares, all tension has deflated from the film. The music had told us that the friend, animal or object is the one to fear, not the monster, the antagonist or the supernatural. The jump scare is the cheapest tactic used in horror films today and the most frightening thing, its rampant use has caused many audience members to forget what true horror is.

Horror movies should be like sex. You do not want your audience to blow their load too early. If your audience began to associate everything frightening in the film with loud noises and and sound effects. Your film will build to nothing. The climax of the movie will not be effective in the least because the audience already had all the tension released too early by countless jump scares, making what is actually supposed to be frightening near the end tiresome.

Pre-production Week 4

Not much to report for this week. We finally found a house to shoot at for the majority of the film. It was a decent location.

At the same time, we lost our lead actress due to schedule problems.

Our group's logo intro was made too but I don't think I'm allowed to share over here.