The Clown: Working Around The Problems of the Rough Cut

When we were tasked with working with what we had with the rough cut for our final product, we were presented with one major issue. This issue was that in the final shot of the film, where Ethan's throat is slit, there is no blood visible. this presented an obvious continuity error, so we brainstormed how we would fix it.

We had originally planned to use makeup when we shot the final cut at Corey's house, but those plans had fallen through due to the COVID pandemic. Now, our only option was to fix the mistake within the post-production process.
We first turned to VFX. Neither of us were experienced in the area, so we resorted to online tutorials. We found a video by a channel called Film Riot, which detailed how to place a bloody wound on someone using VFX.

The video explained how to use Adobe After Effects and one of its plug-ins, titled Mocha, to achieve our desired effect. Just as we did with Premiere Pro, we redeemed our free trial for the program and began our work. Then we ran into a problem.

We very quickly discovered that After Effects is extremely intensive on computer hardware. Neither Ethan or I had incredibly advanced computer units, so the application would crash as soon as we loaded our footage into the software.

Fixing the continuity error with VFX began to seem like an impossibility. Ethan and I began to brainstorm, and finally came up with the solution of using a title card. We had originally planned for the scene to cut to black and then reveal the title of the film. Now, to work around Ethan's lack of blood, we decided that the title card would overlay the screen as soon as Ethan removed his hands from his throat, effectively covering up the issue.

Notice how the C covers up Ethan's throat.

This wasn't the most glamorous method of dealing with our issue, but considering our circumstances of having to work from home with our own assets, I was generally happy with how the fix turned out. It adds to horror me. The fact that we aren't gratuitous with our violence, and instead conceal it, adds to the mystique and horror of the film, almost as if it is waiting to play it's best card instead of blowing it at the beginning. 

The Clown: Typography

For the in-film typography, we were very much inspired by the typography of our own production company, and the cult classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
As mentioned in our blog post on our production company, the Hackhouse Productions font had a low-budget, handmade quality to it, which made it feel a little unsettling. The choice was inspired by the 1981 horror-drama An American Werewolf in London.

Hackhouse Productions logo

The title card of An American Werewolf in London (1981)

We wanted to maintain a similar aesthetic for the film, but also wanted to take inspiration from other clown-related material at the time. To accomplish this, we looked to the 1988 horror film Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The font as similarly inconsistent, but had more jagged angles than our original Hackhouse Productions font.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space poster

Instead of cutting out the letters in paper, we used the pen tool in Photoshop to recreate the messy, handmade angles of both fonts. This was our final result.

After we were done, we exported the asset as a PNG into the editing project so we could put it against a background.

The Clown: Music

For the musical score in the movie, we knew from the start that we wanted heavy, 80's style synth music. For reference, we look to John Carpenter's films Halloween and The Thing, both of which have synth based soundtracks.

We didn't worry about music selection until we were done with the final edit, since most movies aren't scored until they are done with the final edit. Once we had the final version of the movie, we went to YouTube to find our music. We made sure to find royalty free music so that we wouldn't have to worry about copyright issues.
We ended up finding the track below. It's one note synth lead perfectly fit the tense aesthetic we were going for, and the music slowly built onto itself, much like how the scene is supposed to.

After we put the music into the editing software and had it in a position we wanted it in, something still felt missing from the shot where Ethan's throat is slit. We decided we wanted to incorporate a strike into the sound mix to emphasize the shock of the clown's emergence from the closet. We skimmed YouTube for a bit and found this sound.

The Clown CCR

The Clown: Final Cut

The Monkey: Dealing with Coronavirus

Our plans to reshoot the movie at Corey's apartment on Saturday, March 14, 2020 were derailed due to the rising concerns of coronavirus in our county. The week leading up to March 14 seemed pretty normal. We were already planning what we were going to do differently on the second night of shooting. Ethan and I had arranged for our friend Joel to act in the movie to replace Ethan's role in the rough cut. Joel has had prior experience acting, and we thought he would bring some more weight to the film's opening. In addition to this, I had negotiated with our school's dram teacher to borrow some makeup to make a wound on Joel's throat in the final shot. I was also researching how to do this style of makeup.

Everything seemed like it was going to work out, but on Friday, March 13, in true Friday the 13th style, everything came crashing down. Our principal announced that schools would be closing and we would have to start taking virtual classes from home the following Monday. In addition to this, our county was deemed the epicenter of the pandemic in Florida, with over 20 cases diagnosed at the time.

An email to all students and parents of our school from Principal Gary Springer regarding school attendance during the pandemic.

An article via WPTV5 in West Palm Beach regarding Broward's leading number of cases.

The crew was still willing to shoot, albiet cautiously, but on filming day, Corey informed us that his mother wasn't comfortable with us coming over due to fear of spreading the virus. This meant that moving forward, we would have to work with what we had edited in school with the footage from the first night.
The following Monday, I went to school to retrieve what we had edited on the school computer. We were working in school with Final Cut Pro, a fairly high end editing software. Since we only had access to iMovie at home, we had to export what we had edited as a .mp4 file and not a project so we could transfer the workload in between softwares. Below is the unfinished rough cut, as of Monday, March 16th, 2020.

The Monkey: Test Shots

During our first night of filming, we utilized test shots to plan out the staging and camera movement in select scenes.
In the first shot, in which the camera slowly moves in on Ethan's window, I had to demonstrate what I was looking for in the shot to our cameraman, Liam. I used my iPhone to show him the angle and camera movement I wanted, and the final shot turned out perfect.

In the next couple shots, the camera was stationary, so instead of videos, I took pictures of the specific angles I wanted so that Liam could shoot the film how we wanted. Once again, the test shots helped us in framing and communicating our ideas to our cameraman.

After my character was no longer in the scene, I took over the camera work. For the shot of Ethan walking down the hallway, I took a couple test videos to get the angle and the positioning just right so that the camera could capture what was going on through the gap in the doors. Once perfected, we filmed the shot, to satisfying results.

We utilized a test shot once again when filming the shot where Ethan opens the closet. To demonstrate what I wanted out of the shot, I set up the camera where I wanted it and utilized the front facing camera of the iPhone so I could see what the camera was shooting. After hitting record, I closed the closet door and showed Ethan how the scene should look. I played it back for him once we finished the test shot so he could practice his acting in the shot.

Overall, the use of test shots in our production process was incredibly helpful in communicating and refining ideas with our cast and crew.