Project Research

There was a lot of research required at the front end of this project. As well as the generic pre-production components, I also had a lot of other things to be considered; understanding the folklore on which my project is loosely based, developing and understanding my own interpretation of the sonnet and how this would translate to the screen and designing and creating props.

Voodoo dolls made for the film.

At this stage of pre-production, I knew that I was intending to make a horror. It was a genre that I hadn't spent a lot of time with, and although I was familiar with some of the usual tropes and expectations of horror, the idea that I had was intended to be more nuanced and I needed to find work that felt reflective of my own final intentions. As mentioned in my other post, much of this inspiration came from both Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, as masters of the genre, but I also found a tremendous amount of help on Youtube!

This video (premiumbeat, 2021) (Although it uses a teddy bear as its antagonist) was a great source of help to understand some basic principles of building tension and how to translate ideas to screen in an audiovisual format. It helped guide some of my shot choices and to build tension in my story. It signposted for me some of the more subtle ideas that could be utilised to build suspense, rather than a cheap jump scare, or showing the monster.

Alfred Hitchcock famously said;

"There is no terror in the bang, only the anticipation of it."

For me, this proves entirely true and often once the 'reveal' has happened, I quickly begin to lose interest. The ethereal, malevolent presence in a film like 'Midsommar' (Though there are Humans in the cult-like framework, for me, it never feels as though the events are explicit of their doing) holds a great deal more weight because you never understand the true intentions or capabilities of the evil force, as opposed to the poor CGI characters adopted by many other horror productions that have a limited potential for wrongdoing. i.e. A zombie is only out to eat brains, a malevolent force (As shown in Midsommar) could create any number of cruel outcomes.

A screenshot from an Insider video - Creating jump scares in horror movies.

When presenting my idea to my Tutor, I was still unsure of what the supernatural antagonist would be. During a productive 1-1, she provided some valuable feedback and suggested that I could look into Irish mythology and folklore as a staring point. I began to read into this and discovered 'Changelings'; fairies who would take babies for various reasons, one being so that they could pose as the child and receive the love and care of a baby, another, simply to be malicious. It was this second idea that interested me the most. I think the most sinister antagonists are those that perform terrible acts for their own satisfaction, simply because they can.

A Changeling baby.

Building on this idea of a malevolent force, I began to devise ways to show the presence of the thing, without ever having to show it. My main plot device was going to be a 'wishbone', introduced early on, it provides the protagonist with a visual device in which he can enter into a deal, the making of an ill-intentioned wish. Getting the wishbone proved to be more difficult than I expected, and without buying half a dozen chickens, it appeared there wasn't much other option. I went through my old craft boxes and discovered some white air-dry clay and set about crafting a number of wishbones in different shapes and sizes so that there were a number of choices we could use throughout the filming in case of breakages, or if a certain size- this was only slightly variable so unlikely to be noticed by the viewer- worked better for a particular shot. After creating the wishbones out of clay, I had to continually dip them in a cold mixture of tea, many times over, building up a realistic bone colour, before finishing them off by putting coffee grounds into the details and accentuating certain areas. 

A close-up of a finished wishbone.

Various wishbones drying on a cutting mat.

As well as the wishbones, I wanted to build on the lore by making something that felt more generically and visually 'Witchcraft.' I looked online and found some different sources for items pertaining to Witchcraft. One of the most significantly interesting things I found were two voodoo figures dated some time around the Salem Witch Trials. I thought it would prove to be an effective prop, so sought to recreate my own. I wanted to use materials that were natural, as Witches would, and got some ground dug clay and some cotton, and used vegetables such as beetroot, herbs, different powders (Mustard, Turmeric) and even soil to dye the fabric so that everything had a sense of authenticity and was representative of this supernatural force.

'Voodoo' dolls of the protagonist and the Baby.

I also created some Witches' Hexes that would be hung on the exterior of the house during filming. I did this by collecting twigs from various types of trees and tying them together with coarse parcel string that had been dyed in soil and tea; here's a still taken from the film.

Hexes made from various twigs and parcel string.

I also had an idea of how I wanted my film to look and had organised to use a BlackMagic 4K pocket cinema camera ahead of filming as I knew that it gave a great cinematic feel to the footage. Part of my planning was developing an idea of my visual language, and I looked to other horror films to build a 'moodboard' that was representative of what I would like my final film to be.

My horror moodboard.

Ingmar Bergman, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and the Coen Brothers are a few names that feature in the moodpboard above. I'm yet to watch a Bergman film at length, but have watched many videos, and looked at many stills of his work. The compositions of his work are astounding, and the way that he obscures and frames faces is something of great interest to me. The upside down shot in the storyboard was heavily inspired by Bergman and I also anticipate creating some shots of my protagonist obscured by different objects such as bedsheets, which creation a distinct separation within the frame.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Filmmaking Basics: 8 Ways to Build Tension in a Scene (2021) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ss-dEGn05g&list=LL&index=16 (Accessed: December 6, 2022). 

How great jump scares are made in Horror movies (2020) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llpsjbNQIns&t=28s (Accessed: December 29, 2022). 

Post, I. (2021) Exploring irish mythology: Changelings, The Irish Post. The Irish Post. Available at: https://www.irishpost.com/life-style/exploring-the-irish-mythology-changelings-170347 (Accessed: December 4, 2022).