When I started this project I was not 100% on which direction I wanted to take other than I

knew I definitely wanted to create a short film.

Eventually, after long deliberation, I decided on a horror production based on the ‘be silent to
survive’ concept popularised by films like A Quiet Place and its sequel.
However, due to A Quiet Place being a super-natural and VFX heavy production, I decided it
best to not take too much from the original source material other than the horror aspects and
the concept I mentioned about being quiet to live.
There was one film I remember watching which was Don’t Breathe, this concept shows a
Blind Man whose home was broken into by robbers who know he has a surplus amount of
compensation money.
What the robbers forget is his military training and his viciousness, they’re eventually each
picked off in a dramatic and extended game of blind man’s bluff. BM’s bluff is essentially hide
and seek with blindfolds not allowing the seeker to see.
I used this concept as well as Don’t Breathe as heavy inspiration for my project.
My intention then became to create a horror short film based on these concepts.

My research into the genre, its conventions and the films gave me the opportunity to learn
new things and new ways to film based on the genre.
I was familiar with video recording as well as the horror aspect as my unit 3 final piece is a
horror/ thriller.
By researching the conventions, how to do them, as well as watching and analysing these
films also how they’re created I would not have the production I ended up with.
On top of this, I researched sounds and effects for my final piece, this allowed me to create a
good production I am proud of.

In comparison to my How-To videos, the way they have explained to me the best ways to
achieve the horror conventions has taken my production to a level I wouldn’t be able to
mimic beforehand.
The first video on jumpscares by Insider gave brilliant direction and easy to follow steps to
make a good jump scare, which I used in my production.
I used breadcrumbs and a good build-up as well as a successful sting to help create a jump
scare that works and has scared those that have watched it.
Unfortunately, the Blind Eye effect was something I did learn separate from the video due to
unpredictable issues I mention in my Problem Solving.
However, though I did manage to make it in my experimentation it didn’t work well in my
FMP due to low light and tracking issues, therefore, after an hour and a half of trying to make
it work it sadly had to be cut from the final piece, making it less impactful at the end.
Though the video I show on my website isn’t a how-to for making a split screen effect, it
shows how having two characters played by the same person appears on screen.
It worked well due to me remembering how to do it from my Unit 3 final piece.
Although I didn’t research this for my conventions as such, I used the iconic violin sounds
and piano notes from my horror productions throughout my project as well as impact sounds
to make the jump-scares exactly what they are; jumps.

My sound design which was a big part of my research (& this type of film) was something
which I definitely think went as well as it could with a limited budget and using sounds from
YouTube. I am also very proud of some of my camera work and angles because I feel like
without further analysis and practice throughout the year then this production would not have
gone nearly as well. My use of jumpscares was not too overused and to me perfectly
balanced and I believe this went extremely well as well as my split screen work.

My acting unfortunately was the downfall of this project, I looked at the camera too many
times which caused editing issues and I feel it took audiences out of the production. The title
was an issue as well as it kept defaulting to an available font each time I opened up
Premiere Pro in different devices so that was not how I wanted it as well as the ending. I
believe the ending was underwhelming and could have done with some more editing if I had
the time to do so.

In hindsight, I would certainly give myself more time and possibly book time off work to allow
for my editing and recording days to keep up with the work and allow time to fix things like
the blind eye effect which unfortunately didn’t work. On top of this I wish I had sorted out
actors sooner and I could have finished this production a lot quicker and been less stressed
and wouldn’t have to worry about too many things.

My target audience as well as those aged above really liked it and all said it was really good
and that they were proud and impressed with what I have managed to create making me
more relaxed about the outcome of my production. This feedback meant a lot and had made
me more confident in my own work and motivated me to continue to make productions. They
also said that the jumpscares worked well and made them jump and certain scenes made
them scream which made me very happy.

I have developed my skills of video production in terms of sound design, premiere pro work
and further expanded on my after effects skills though none of it was featured. I am also far
more proficient with a camera and using it to create great impactful and creative shots,
something I lacked in unit 3. I have developed these skills across the year and learnt a lot in
general from Corridor Crew in my own time and also the videos I watched for conventions as
well as the movies I analysed for my research.