Edited Title PicturesBy Lily Potter

Photo shoot of Pictures• In order to create the titles of my production, I used various children’s

dolls, both common to the horror genre and also associated with children, linking my subject matter and my production together, and also taking inspiration from other media’s such as American Horror Story: Freak show opening title sequence and Stop Motion Animation film "Severance". These are clearly marketed with the horror genre to the public and heavily recognised.

• However, after the photoshoot, I found that many of the photo’s were ineffective in establishing the genre and also did not give the overall effect that I wanted, often too light, not shadowed enough or not centred within the frame. I decided to edit the photos in order to give the pictures a clear horror aesthetic and to correct any errors within the pictures, adjusting the images to fit my look and feel of my short film and to fit the horror codes and conventions.

American Horror Story: Freak show (OTS)

Stop Motion Animation film "Severance".

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After editing:

The biggest contrast between the original picture and the edited version, is the darkness of the background and the use of lighting, thus creating shadows within the subjects features. I found this more effective than the original as within the horror genre, the subject in question is often more mysterious and disorientating towards the audience when facial features are not shown as recognisable than when viewing when fully lit. Therefore I find that the use of low level lighting, adjusted using a lower intensity of brightness, has a more intense look and feel about the object, and also suits the genre, establishing this to the audience directly. Additionally, the use of the lighting and black background, creates ambiance within the atmosphere, this is usually because darkness is usually associated with evil and a scene of unease within the audience's emotions. Darkness also creates the feeling of vulnerability and a sense of threat as they are unable to see clearly and therefore the fear of the unseen and unknown is created through lighting techniques and the use of shadow.

In order to focus more on the object itself, I cropped the image, so that it fills more of the frame. Although this is effective as a picture, when creating an opening title sequence, I find that this now will not be able to fit as much information on it as possible therefore a longer title sequence would have to be made in order to include all of the additional information in. This may then limit how long my short film can be, therefore I may have to adjust how big my font is or the size of the picture to fit all names and job roles into my production. As well as the use of cropping the image, I also made the object stand out by lowering the saturation of the picture. This makes a clearer contrast between the subject matter and background and establishes a typical horror colour scheme of black and white, which also indicates to the target market the genre.

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After editing:

I feel that the dark sepia toned filter, is not as effective as the black and white colour scheme as it is less of a contrast, although unusual and uncommon within the horror genre, making it stand out indivually within my production. It also does not bring out the shadows or highlights within this picture however due to the filter, blends them and fades them more, lessening the effect of the shadowed background.

Additionally to the filter, the use makes the subject matter look more dirty and disused, making the background of the toy more significant. For example, due to the toy also being broken, the background behind the image links to old antique objects, commonly seen in horror films and linked with children. This is significant to the titles of the film as it clearly directs the audience into the introduction of children by objects commonly associated with them. Additionally, the dirtied effect gives a feeling of unease commonly linked with the horror genre.

Before editing:

After editing: My main aim for this photo was to experiment with obscure focusing. I have adjusted it so that there is a focus on the arm and hand holding the head in a linear fashion. This distorts the other hand making it look more artificial and disorientating. This conveys a disturbing sense appropriate for the horror genre.

In addition to drawing attention towards the subject matter rather than the dark background I sharpened the image, creating texture of materials of the doll’s head. This creates more of a gradient between the dolls head and the shadow which changes the perspective on how the light is caught upon the object and displayed. I found that this effect creates a spotlight effect upon the object and as a result, the picture starts to get darker towards the top of the doll’s head due to the shadow and overall light effect. This is an example of dramatic lighting I used within my photoshoot and how this could later be applied to my production or ancillary products for a pronounce effect and show of the horror genre to the audience.

When adjusting the structure and sharpening the photo, This had an effect on the colouring and texture of the doll arms, creating a dirtier look, suggesting to the audience that these are antique or disused toys. However, the effect on the arm’s also could be interoperated as being bruises, giving the doll a human-like imperfection, suggesting a plot twist within the film later on, making the film intriguing to watch and find out more.

I found by using mismatched items, this also has an unease effect directed towards the audience, and makes the audience think it shouldn’t be there because it is different. The use of mismatched and different items within the horror genre is significant as it is out of the ordinary and therefore out of the audience’s comfort zone. In addition the use of the dolls hands also have a clear symbolic code towards the audience as the way the hand is positioned, appears the audience that the toy is being hushed or strangled, this is a clear link towards the posters body language and the link between symbolic codes within the horror genre.

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After editing:

After sharpening the image, this gave more texture to the image, bringing out the material it is made of as well as bringing out the dirt of the arm, hand and the facial features and expression of the doll.

This original image, had many imperfections such as unwanted set in the frame and the backdrop not being as dark as I wanted, causing a grainy effect due to the texture and the light. However, this could be easily fixed by cropping the image, lowering the brightness of the image and applying a vignette frame as a gradient effect. This then creates a more professional effect towards the audience and an official look towards my production as well as focusing a spotlight upon the doll’s head, indicating its importance compared to the dolls arm which is more shadowed within the edit.

By cropping the image, I found this to be more effective than the original photo as it had a large space around the subject matter that took the attention off of the doll features and therefore was ineffective towards the audience. However, this may have an affect towards the titles as this use of space now limited the amount of space I have for my titles. Although due to my production being a large scale animation with no actors and limited members working on my film, there may be limitations towards how much information my titles will contain.

Before editing:

After editing:

Although there is little difference between the edited and original version of this image, I applied more of a darker shadow within the image and also applied a vignette boarder to act as a gradient. I also produced a toned highlight towards the image to give the doll’s more of a flesh tone to apply in order for them to look more realistic and less doll-like. As the light is directly hitting the top of the doll’s head, this brings the attention towards that feature more than any other, despite having other parts of the doll within frame. However, I find that the cropped image now is unable to have room to display any titles without overlapping the doll parts. This may cause problems if the text is written in a light colour and would not stand out against the flesh tones.If using this image I will have to ensure there is enough room to fit a company name or short job title to ensure that I can fit all necessary names within the titles. For this I will refer to the layout conventions in order to produce a image that fill fit to the rest of the frame within my short film production.

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After editing:

Unlike the other photos I have edited, this does not relate to the typical black and white colour scheme, however I find that the use of the blue, brings out a mottled and old effect, which proves to be very effective. In addition to this, I find that due to the contrast of highlights and filters, the light within the doll’s head has more of an impact and draws the audience towards it compared to the other subject matter within the photo. The use of light within the head shows an unrealistic and almost demonic looking object, which can be easily associated towards the genre.

Like another photos within this shoot, this photo also has imperfections and unwanted backgrounds within the shot, meaning that this image also had to be cropped in order to fix this and give a better effect towards the audience. However, when producing my titles this may be an issue due to the frame size of my photo compared to my film. Although this would be effected more on a big screen, the difference in frame between my titles and my animated film will effect the quality of my overall production dramatically and therefore possibly my audience if the film isn’t as professional looking or suits to the basic frame sizes of films, therefore effecting the quality.

An issue I find with this lighting is although there is a clear main focus on subject matter, due to the dark areas within the photo that is enhanced by the filter, the rest of the doll parts within the photo looks too dark and may be unrecognisable if watching on a screen where the brightness if not suited to the production. Possibly lessening the aesthetical effect of the production if features go unnoticed, especially if there are additional titles to read within this frame, therefore features that don’t stand out wont grab the attention of the audience and will therefore go unrecognised.

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After editing:

Although this photo’s layout of the subject matter is very effective, I find that the original image has too direct lighting towards the object and is included too much within the shot. Therefore I had to dim the effect within highlighting or crop out the photo altogether. I had trouble with achieving a realistic with the lighting in this photo as I could not adjust the lighting that did not take the attention away from the doll parts or make them too dark that an audience member could not recognised the object, therefore I have to crop the photo to remove the biggest part of the direct light. Although within the edited phot the light has a gradient effect that is very effective on the dolls face and the background of the photo, I did however crop too much of the leg out of the frame and therefore does not look as good as in the original. If using this photo within my titles, I will have to adjust the frame size of the image so it does not ruin the overall effect of the image. As this could look unprofessional towards the target market.

By blocking out the eyes of the doll, this has an automatic connection between the horror genre and the image, often linked to a demonic creature. This also has an effect on the audience by creating enigma and a feeling of mystery behind the image as you can not distinguish many facial features due to the shadowing within the photo. In addition to this, the face is not connected to the head and the legs of the doll, also enhances the mismatched theme within my titles but also creates another feeling of mystery within the photo, this makes the audience wonder why the toys aren’t connected and broken and also why the face of the doll is acting as a mask, usually linked to a false identity. The use of this image creates questions the audience asks an d therefore want to watch the film to find out the answers to them.

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Within these series of photos, I mainly focused on the way the doll’s head could be presented within its lighting and positioning within the frame. I have used various low-key lighting techniques and unconventional ways to use lighting such as within the doll’s head itself, in order to create unique ways that my subject matter will stand out towards an audience.

Within this photo I mainly focused on the effect of the shadow in contrast towards the doll, as I found that the shadow looked more life like than the doll itself. I lightly blurred out the rest of the image, minus the shadow in order to ensure that it was its main focus and changed the highlighting and filter to produce a less of a contrast within the image to ensure that the shadow could be seen. However, although this does have an enigma towards the audience, half of the doll’s face looks more blurred and distorted as it is too light and too blurred to distinguish facial features.

Within this image, I experimented with a black and white filter to create a bigger contrast within the doll’s head and the background. Although I find this very effective compared to the other images, I find that the angle is too high up and would create a better effect if the doll’s head would look down the lens of the camera, creating a disturbing effect within the audience, of them being watched, an effect that is often used within the horror genre.

Although this edit brings out the light within the doll’s head in a unique way and brings out the dirt within the doll’s face, I find that due to the lack of other objects within the frame. Although this would then bring the audiences full attention towards the titles on the image, therefore by putting an important company name or production name this would then produce full attention on the most important information towards the audience.

ConclusionBy preforming this task, this helped me to expand on the images use as I could not only use these photos within my titles of the film, but I could also use them within the posters advertising the film and also within my magazine film review, having clear links within my ancillary products and production, making them flow and easy to identify and connect to the audience, acting as a relatable theme within my products.

I have also found within editing my photos that I will still have to make adjustments towards my photos in order to ensure that they are fit for purpose when involved within my titles and poster. For example, research and adjustments within layout conventions will have to be made in order to ensure that my scale is correct within my titles to ensure it fits with my short film, as well as poster sizes. As well I will also have to ensure that my filters within my images match each other as the contrast between photos making it look unprofessional if my photos don’t match aesthetically and fit a colour scheme, or it may be difficult to see certain texts and fonts, therefore making it difficult to chose a font type that my audience will be able to see.