Methods to Murder

Marion, an uninhibited secretary steals $40,000 from her employer and drives off into the night to meet her lover. During a storm she arrives at a sinister motel owned by a taxidermist, later revealed to be completely insane, whose even more demented mother lives in the adjoining mansion.

1. Psycho
2. Production year: 1960
3. Countries: UK, USA
4. Cert (UK): 15
5. Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
6. Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles

There follows one of the most disgusting and notorious murders in all screen history. It takes place in a bathroom and involves a great deal of swabbing of the tiles and flushing of the lavatory. 

This scene is a perfect example of how we plan to execute our killing scene. There is undoubtedly a murder taking place in Psycho, however, Hitchcock has directed it in such a way that shows no breaking of the skin through the stabbing, while also depicting the horror of the scene masterfully. We will emulate this this for various reasons such as we cannot literally stab our actress and that we have an overall budget of £0.  


We also preferred to avoid the use of gore as it became overly clichéd and tacky within the 80's - 90's horror scene with the release of low budget films such as Friday the 13th and scream.  

Software Used

During the process of our post-production we used several programs. Sony Vegas 10, was the main piece of software we used as all editing was done through it while also being the sole point where the product from other software were accumulated. An example of this would be the titles/text were put together using Photoshop, rendered as an Interlaced PNG and then imported into Sony Vegas. 
The colour correction/grading was done with a combination of After Effects and Sony Vegas giving it that subtle movie like tone. It was finally touched up using a plug-in called Magic Bullet Mojo. 
The sound was mastered and re-rendered using audacity as there was a lot of back ground noise that needed removed, there was also pitch shifts changed within the soundtrack and output as 320kb/s to make it the highest possible quality available.

Day Two Of Filming

Arriving

Dirty Hands

Natalie

Preparing For Dragging Scene

Finished Day Of Filming

More Dragging

Some Techniques We Researched And Used

We did some extra research into simple tricks you can do to make your video flow a little smoother by using cheap and simple techniques, some examples are below.




This helped massively during our filming, in particular with the scenic shots of the tree line. It increased the smoothness of the pan like was shown above and was a vital part in making our film what it is in the finished piece. 




This was used in some of our dragging scenes most of which did not end up being in our finished piece. This created a very subtle difference in our piece and although useful, did not have much place in our filming method. This is however worthwhile to be aware of for future project where we may go in another direction.




We did not use this at all because it projects a tone which contrasts the tone we aimed for. As the man in the video explains, this technique would be suited best within a scene portraying confusion or stress, these were aspects we did not want to include. This technique may prove useful in projects to come which is why we took notice of it.

Day One of Filming

Improvisation

Making our way through the location

Ryan In Costume

Darren And Luke Discussing The Shots

       Looking For Shots Of The Sky 

Luke Looking For More Scenic Shots

Helping Others With Their Video

Leaving Hours Later

Filming Day by Day

Our First Day of Filming from Blue Shift on Vimeo.

Our first Official day of filming which was somewhat restricted due to the unreliability of actresses unnamed (Natalie). Despite this we got 16 seconds filmed which due to the quality of the very short footage motivated us for our future filming.

Our Second Day Of Filming from Blue Shift on Vimeo.

We got considerably more done during our second day of filming than the first, however not all of it is shown in this video. This day proved successful because of how every little detail went to plan from costume, to actors to timing.




There are a few minor changes needed to be done to improve the fluency of the piece but this is more or less our finished project.

Possible Names For The Short Film

• Repose
• Emulsion
• Frames
• Negatives
• Pictures
• Picture Frames
• Blessed With A Curse
• Eyes Wide Open
• Eyes Completely Shut
• Ashes
• Burning Envy
• Finding Richard
• Deliver My Soul
• Retribution
• Internment

Our Killing Scene Rehearsal

Flashback Killing Scene Rehearsal from Blue Shift on Vimeo.


A very rough rehearsal of our final killing scene. The acting will mostly be kept the same with a few minor changes. The camera shots will be changed dramatically to make the scene more detailed and contain more filming techniques.

Possible Narrative

I had known for weeks


I tried to forgive as was taught, but should I really forgive, when she feels no sorrow, no regret?

Should I forgive when she shows no willingness to confess?

The thought of them burned inside of me until it was unleashed in one thunderous rage.

Her beautiful smile, forever tainted with my memory of him. 

Its strange, how when your life shakes with a tremendous roar, the lords forest stays so still, so tranquil.

Unmoved by the atrocities of this modern age.

An age where whores like her do as they please, repelling the good word of the lord, spitting in the face of their maker, the one they owe everything to.

But no more.

As I watch the ashes of the one I loved course through the placid air, I feel no relief, No sudden sense of justice to quench my anger.
I feel this, because I know, I know the one to blame is still breathing, completely oblivious to the macabre events of which were his causing.
I can picture him, sitting with his family, laughing, oblivious to the fact that I am coming for him, oblivious to the fact that I will-not-stop until his body, is decomposing in some shallow swamp surrounded by the bones of his children. Not until he is forced to kneel before Lucifer himself, and beg for the retribution of which he will never be granted.
      'Return O lord, Deliver my soul: O Save me for thy mercies sake
       For in death there is no remembrance
       And in thy grave, who shall give thee thanks?'


We have decided to scrap the idea of a narrative because when we accumulated the video and audio together it did not match well. We will however keep this post up to show our progress to our final piece.

Inception of Characters

Our characters took form after a long and close study of the most well known fictional characters portrayed in cinemas. 


 One character we examined was Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 adaption of 'The Shining'.  Jack Torrance is a writer and former teacher who is trying to rebuild his family's life after his alcoholism and volatile temper costs him his teaching position at a small preparatory school. Having given up drinking, he accepts a position maintaining the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado for the winter, in the hope that this will salvage his family, re-establish his career, and give him the time and privacy to finish a promising play.






 Another character which perhaps influenced our character Darragh  Boyle the most is Norman Bates played by Anthony Perkins. Norman Bates suffers severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, who preaches to him that sex is evil and that all women (except herself) are whores. The two of them live together in a state of total co-dependence after the death of Bates' father. When Bates is a teenager, his mother takes a lover which drives Bates over the edge with jealousy. Bates murders both of them with strychnine and preserves his mothers corpse. Bates develops dissociative identity disorder, assuming his mothers personality, repressing her death as a way to escape the guilt of killing her. He inherits his mothers house, where he keeps her corpse, and the family motel in fictional Fairvale, California.





As you can see the type of characters we are interested in emulating are making a pattern. The characters seem to be more mentally conflicted or insane rather than the basic slasher villains intent solely on murder. This gives our character personality and sets him apart from the majority of horror persona's. 


Darragh Boyle - Main Character, Murderer.
Raised by a strict Roman Catholic family. Darragh met and married Chloe 4 years before the events of this film, and has proved in the past to be easily agitated.
Played by Ryan Kearney.


Chloe Boyle - Secondary Character, Primary Victim.
Chloe was raised in Ireland and unlike Darragh was brought up as irreligious. Since marriage to Darragh she has felt the effects of immense stress due to his attitude/borderline obsession with religion and his frightening mood swings, because of this she spends her time searching for escape of which she finds in Richard.
Played by Natalie M?


Richard Striker - Only shown through Pictures, Implied Victim
Richard moved to Ireland from New York with his wife and two young sons. Although he has no friendship or acquaintance with Darragh he has known Chloe for several years. Darragh is unaware of this until the day of the events shown.