Script for Evaluation - Questions 2, 3 and 4 - Film Podcast for 'Equinox'

I will be recording and editing my evaluation for Questions 2, 3 and 4 as a podcast later today. Below is the script which I am going to record in smaller paragraphs before assembling it using Adobe Audition.

Once I have completed this editing, I will upload the podcast onto Soundcloud after it's finished.

Script for Questions 2, 3 and 4

ALEX: Welcome to Off the Beaten Track, the folk horror film podcast. Long-time listeners you know the drill, we’ll be looking at three films from the creepiest of genres. Later we’ll be dissecting one of the classics, ‘The Blood on Satan’s Claw’ and talking to Ben Wheatley about his masterpiece ‘A Field in England’ and his love of folk horror. But first, we’ve got a real treat. I’m delighted to introduce a new filmmaker on the scene making her folk horror debut with the genuinely terrifying ‘Equinox’. It’s Alice Livingstone. Hey Alice.

ALICE: Hi. It’s great to be here. I’m a huge fan of the show.

ALEX: Thanks. We’re here to chat about the opening sequence of your new film….I know that one of the things you had to consider when creating your opening sequence for ‘Equinox’ was how it would engage with your audience. Did you consider your audience when creating your characters?

ALICE: I did, definitely, as my research showed that opening scenes frequently introduce important characters and establish their traits for the spectator, but perhaps the main purpose in terms of audience was to instantly suggest to them that the setting was unusual, isolated and potentially dangerous and that the protagonist would be in danger.

When I analysed opening sequences from both within and outside of the folk horror genre I noticed that filmmakers often work hard to create narrative expectations about characters but also, in the case of the folk horror genre in particular, to create an uneasy sense of mystery, enigma and suspense and to indicate that the location is threatening. I wanted the audience to feel tense, so that they feared for the protagonist’s safety, and I achieved this by using some typical tropes of the folk horror genre, such as a montage of driving shots showing the protagonist’s journey from civilisation to isolation and by using sinister and unsettling non-diegetic music. But yes, of course I thought about character.

The way I filmed the female cult leader, and directed her performance, was intended to create intrigue about her; on the one hand she seems pleasant and friendly, seeming to welcome the photographer BUT the way she delivers her final line, almost with a lack of emotion, was intended to signal to the audiences that there may be something more sinister about her. I also wanted to give the impression that the male protagonist was a little naïve, unaware of the danger he might be in, which I did through his dialogue and his body language.

ALEX: So, how did you consider the ways shot choices or other aspects of film language might help create expectations for the audience about the characters you introduce in your opening sequence?

ALICE: Well, I redrafted my shot lists many times so that I was clear what meaning my shots and aspects of mise-en-scene would create for the viewer, particularly with the extreme long shot of the photographer slowly walking up the vast driveway, and the final shot of the female cult leader, but I really spent more time planning the shots of the location and the driving shots to establish just how isolated the setting is.

I also worked on redrafting my script of the conversation between the photographer and his boss which is heard as a phone call in voiceover, and the dialogue between the two main characters. Both of these conversations are intended to plant seeds of doubt in the audience’s minds, so I ensured that the dialogue hinted at possible dangers about the remoteness of the location and the rituals taking place there. I used a range of shot distances – extreme long shots for the driving montage and the photographer’s walk up the driveway and closer shots for the conversation in the second half of the scene – to draw the audience’s attention to important aspects of mise-en-scene.

The longer shots really showcase the setting, whereas the medium shots and medium close ups allow the audience to see the characters’ figure behaviour. My favourite shots are the final driving shot along the single track road and the wide shot of the photographer walking up the driveway. I feel that these shots really helped me achieve the sense of remote isolation I was after.

ALEX: I know the one you mean, both shots are so effective at creating a sense of impending danger.

ALICE: That was the intention. I’m really happy with how those shots came out. The driving shots were inspired by the opening of the folk horror classic ‘The Wicker Man’ where the police officer arrives by plane on the island, but also by driving sequences at the start of other horror films including ‘Eden Lake’, ‘The Descent’ and ‘The Shining’.

ALEX: Great company to be in!

ALICE: I know, right. I just thought that they all really evoked a sense of isolation and threat so I thought I would try something similar. It was important for me to unsettle the audience but not in an overly gory way – ‘Equinox’ is not that kind of horror film. It was crucial for me to create a slow creep of fear, to make the audience uncomfortable but to have them uncertain why they feel unsettled. The music definitely helped with this. The driving shots and the protagonist’s walk up the driveway certainly take on a far more sinister tone with the addition of the music. Through the combination of the shot distances, the mise-en-scene, the slow pace of the editing and the use of music, I hoped that the audience would fear for the protagonist’s safety.

ALEX: How would ‘Equinox’ be distributed if it was a real film?

ALICE: It’s a folk horror film made by A24 and Blumhouse Productions, both companies with a successful track record with horror films in particular, so I would hope that ‘Equinox’ would have a reasonably wide cinematic release, like other recent horror films such as ‘The Monkey’ or ‘Smile 2’. Folk horror films are little more niche, so it may be that I would go down the route of promoting the film at horror film festivals such as Screamfest to try and create a buzz around ‘Equinox’ in order to help it get a wider release in cinemas.

The British folk horror film ‘Starve Acre’ recently appeared at the London Film Festival and the attention it received certainly encouraged a wider cinematic release. I would like something similar. It’s tricky with this kind of film, but there has been such a rise in streaming in recent years, with platforms like MUBI and the BFI Player championing these kinds of films, that I’m confident ‘Equinox’ could find a home here.

ALEX: What about marketing? Would you go traditional or viral?

ALICE: With New Line’s backing, there would obviously be funding for a reasonably big marketing campaign and I would definitely incorporate some traditional elements such as a range of character posters and trailers to be shown before other horror films at the cinema. But, honestly, I think the marketing for ‘Equinox’ would be mainly on social media, like recent horror films such as ‘Longlegs’, which had a brilliant viral marketing campaign.

As I’m trying to reach a younger audience of around 15-24, using platforms such as TikTok and Instagram would make sense. The recent horror film ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ managed to turn a $100,000 budget into $5.2 million at the box office precisely because of its viral marketing campaign, so that’s a marketing pattern I would like to follow.

ALEX: Any thoughts about when the film would be released?

ALICE: It’s a horror film, so initially I considered releasing it at Halloween. But as the title ‘Equinox’ suggests, the film’s narrative centres around this solar event which happens twice a year, around the 20th of March and the 23rd of September, I decided to pick a date close to one of these events. The closest Friday was the 26th of September, so that’s when you’ll see it in cinemas.

ALEX: Thanks for that Alice, we’re just going to take a quick break, but we’ll be back soon to talk about ‘Equinox’ some more.

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ALEX: Hi. Welcome back to this week’s edition of Off the Beaten Track. We’re talking to Alice Livingstone about her folk horror debut ‘Equinox’. So, before the break we talked a little about some of the creative decisions behind your new film and some of the plans regarding marketing and its release. Can we turn to the making of the film to get an insight into how your production skills developed during the course of making the opening sequence for ‘Equinox’.

ALICE: Of course…well, there were so many ways that my production skills developed when creating my opening sequence, from filming to editing.

ALEX: Great, shall we start with filming?

ALICE: Well, with the filming, I was a real novice before starting the course. I had never filmed on a digital camera before, other than messing around and helping out on other students’ projects, so I had to learn how to use it and practice with a tripod which, thankfully, I got more comfortable with throughout the shooting process.

ALEX: Did you do some test shooting before actual filming began?

Filming Tests - Driving 

ALICE: Of course…lots of it. Practicing shot distances, angles and camera movement, alongside working out how to get steady, well-framed shots, was something I did way before I had even chosen the locations of the house and the roads for the driving shots. This helped me learn what worked and what didn’t, allowing to see what the shots in my shot list would look like in reality. I tried replicating certain shots I had seen in some existing horror films, of isolated locations for example, and I tried out some techniques that I felt didn’t work and didn’t make it into my final film. A good example of this was filming handheld shots in the maze at Cliveden House, where the style of shots I filmed just didn’t fit the aesthetic I was trying to achieve.

The experience of filming test shots, knowing they wouldn’t go in my finished production, helped me work out the most effective ways of achieving certain shots, so, that when it came to my ‘real’ shoot, it was much more time efficient. Good examples were the driving shots at the beginning of the scene. Initially, I filmed from the back of the car, but it was very difficult to get the right angle and keep the camera steady. When I looked back at the shots I knew I had to re-think how I was going to film these shots as they were such an integral part of my scene and I wanted to get them right. It was because of these test shots that I devised the idea of securing the camera to the dashboard of the car with blu-tac. This kept the shots steady and meant that I could film much longer driving sequences.

By the time I filmed the real shots, I had practiced shooting lots of different locations at different times of the day. This also helped me work out which kind of lighting worked best. Initially I panned across the locations, or zoomed into them, but I realised looking at the footage that the most effective shots were those that were still. I also practiced a range of distances, initially shooting the conversation sequence between the male and female protagonists as a series of two shots and over the shoulder shots – something I changed later to help with continuity – all of which helped me work out which types of shots to include and exclude in my final shot list.

ALEX: Shooting digitally must help you as a filmmaker, right?

ALICE: Definitely. The fact I was using a digital camera helped immensely as I was able to review, and re-watch footage that I had shot just a few seconds previously. This meant that I could make changes on the spot, which saved me so much time and made it less likely I would need to re-shoot on a different day. This was particularly important as most of my actors only had limited availability and wouldn’t have been able to come back for re-shoots. I was also limited to one morning of shooting at Cliveden House, so I had to make sure that I got all the coverage I needed on that day.

The large memory in the digital camera meant that I could film lots of shots, many of which weren’t on my original shot list, which meant I had space for extra footage. This meant there were more options for me when editing, giving me more choice, as well as re-shoots being kept to a minimum due to the extra footage. I shot so much footage at Cliveden house, but I probably only used 10% of the shots. Similarly, I filmed a lot of driving shots, but ended up using only a tiny percentage of them.

ALEX: How did you find the editing process?

ALICE: When I first sat down in the editing suite, I already felt confident, partly because I had filmed so much extra footage and I knew I would have a lot of options. But I was nervous because it was a completely new experience for me. I picked it up pretty quickly though and by the end I was much more confident.

ALEX: What software did you use?

ALICE: For the editing, I used Adobe Premiere Pro which at first was tricky because I had to learn even the simplest of tasks as there were so many different tools and options. First, I had to back up all the shots on an extra USB, just in case something went wrong and I lost the files. Then I sorted all the shots into bins or folders, so that it would be easy and accessible for me to find exactly what I needed during the editing. I put all the driving shots, for example, in one bin, and all the shots of nature in another. Separating the shots up this way made it much less time-consuming during editing and allowed me to break the opening sequence down into smaller scenes. I soon got the hang of it and throughout the process I was learning new techniques all the time, such as using the rolling edit tool which made it possible to have the audio of a previous or future clip, play over the image of a different clip. Using this tool definitely made the completed opening sequence feel more fluid and more like the opening of a real film. I also learnt the basics of editing on premiere pro such as cutting, trimming, and piecing the shots together in order to cut out the unnecessary seconds at the beginning and end of a shot that didn’t need to be in the final piece. I also learnt how to edit the audio, adding the music I had selected to a separate timeline and matching it with the visuals.

ALEX: Did the experience help you with your A2 film marketing project?

ALICE: Absolutely. When it came to planning, filming and editing my trailers, my experiences with the whole production process for my opening scene was invaluable. I knew what I could achieve, both with the filming and editing, and this allowed me to make some really creative choices for my trailers.

ALEX: Thanks Alice. We’re going to take another quick break on Off the Beaten Track. But we’ll be back soon for the final part of our chat with filmmaker Alice Livingstone.

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ALEX: Welcome back to Off the Beaten Track for the last part of our chat with Alice Livingstone about her new folk horror film ‘Equinox’. So Alice, can you talk us through the technologies you used during this project.

ALICE: Sure – well, I used a range of technologies across the planning, production and post-production for the opening sequence of ‘Equinox’. This included integrating information gathered online during my research, using hardware for producing my film, and editing software to complete my sequence.

ALEX: Can we start by discussing the hardware you used?

ALICE: The camera I used to film shots for my opening scene was a Panasonic 4K digital camera, which made the filming process very smooth and, because of the large memory, meant that I could film lots of extra footage, adding to the shots I had written down on my shot list. I was also able to watch my footage back instantly, so I immediately knew if I had to shoot another take. This saved me so much time and meant that I kept re-shoots to a minimum.

In addition to the camera, I used a tripod to capture steady shots, like the one of my protagonist walking up the long driveway, and a microphone (and the audio editing software, Adobe Audition) to pre-record the phone conversation between the protagonist and his boss which we hear during the driving montage. The hardware for editing was a PC and a laptop in my college’s editing suite, where I was able to use the editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro to put together my sequence.

ALEX: Tell us a little more about the software you used.

ALICE: Premiere Pro was really useful as it allowed me to place the clips in separate bins, to trim clips, and place these trimmed clips on a timeline. I was also able to add titles, of production companies, the name of my film and cast and crew members, that I had created on Photoshop, to help make the opening scene appear more authentic.

To edit the audio of the phone call that takes place at the start of my opening scene, as well as the sinister non-diegetic music that accompanied the visuals, I used Adobe Audition. I turned down the treble and the bass on the audio track of the phone call (keeping the mid high) so that it sounded muffled and distanced, as a phone call would, and I was able to use the software to edit the music, which meant it perfectly fitted the pace of the shots I had edited together.

For all of the research into opening sequences I conducted, I used Blogger to present this information, creating separate posts on differing parts of my research and planning. Using Blogger meant that I could bring my research to life through the addition of images from folk horror films, video clips of folk horror opening scenes (often accessed through YouTube), links to websites I used and audio clips (which I uploaded from Soundcloud). Using Blogger also allowed me to keep track of my research and planning and to keep my work organised.

ALEX: And what about online tools?

ALICE: Accessing websites was crucial to almost all of my research and planning, from helping me decide which certificate my film should have to deciding what font to use for my titles. The BBFC website was invaluable in helping me determine the most appropriate rating for my film and I was able to see the ratings that other films within the folk horror genre had received and the reasons behind those ratings via BBFC Insight.

To help me decide which font would be most appropriate to use in the titles for ‘Equinox’ I used websites such as DaFont.com and font meme. These websites were very helpful with my research as dafont.com allowed me to type the name of my film into any font, which helped me visualise the text as it would appear in my opening sequence. Font Meme splits fonts into film genre categories and this meant I was able to look at fonts specifically used within my chosen genre. This helped me in choosing ITC Cheltenham as the font I wanted to use. I also used YouTube at the beginning of my research so that I could look at existing opening sequences from both within and outside of the folk horror genre. I was able to embed these clips onto my blog so that they could be viewed alongside my analysis of typical conventions.

ALEX: Well, Thanks Alex. It’s been great to hear about some of the processes behind the creation of your opening sequence.

ALICE: Thanks. It was my pleasure.

ALEX: Check out ‘Equinox’ when it’s released in cinemas on September the 26th. Coming up we’ve got a an in-depth look at folk horror classic ‘The Blood on… (FADE OUT)