Silent Hill Review

Recently I have purchased the DVDs Silent Hill and Silent Hill Revelations. I have watched both of these films on previous occasions and I have enjoyed both of them probably because they are both in my favourite genre category of horror and things that happen in horror films really interest me to find out things about them, especially if they are based on true stories (Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a prime example of this). Silent Hill is a supernatural horror film where it is quite easy to tell that it is not based on a true story in any way. The film is about religious events that have taken place in order to "purify a demon child" which have taken a turn for the worse as the child survives the sacrificial service performed on her to come back and haunt those responsible for it by trapping them in an alternative dimension to the real world. The child (Alessa) is then greeted by some form of demon which splits Alessa into a good side and a bad side. The good side then gets adopted by a family in the real world but is forced to return to Silent Hill to help Alessa complete her revenge with the aid of her adopted mother and a female police officer.

The film is full of CGI and lots of editing and Silent Hill Revelations has even more of these. With the film being very far fetched and supernatural events occurring very frequently, it is very hard to film without using these techniques, especially as the alternate dimension has a constant soft shower of ash from the coal fire that sent silent hill residents fleeing and unable to return. The costume designs are also very detailed and some of the characters are cleverly edited in from external filming. An example of this is shown in the scene with the nurses which is shown to the right.

The locations used, especially in the second part of the film will have had to be put in through the use of CGI. This is because it would be highly difficult to find such locations with the right credentials to represent the film's storyline.

Main Task Filming Review 3

After a discussion with our media teacher, we decided that our piece was very restricted in terms of how much we had filmed and how many locations we had used. Therefore we decided to go out and look for some new locations to film that would give more of a suitable and relevant look to the genre our main task is going to be placed under. We searched areas near to where we had originally filmed as it would allow us to use some previous scenes and therefore we would not have to waste time re-filming the entire piece. Eventually we found a narrow, dark area where we felt the final scenes of the main task could be filmed. We then spoke to our two actors to agree on a date in which we could film these shots.Our female actor was able to do the date we had planned but our male actor was unable due to other commitments so I therefore decided to step in and be the main male actor in the piece. We manage to film everything in such a way that we did not ruin any continuity and we also managed to get all the relevant filming done in the time we had available. This then allowed us to upload all of the filming onto the computer and begin to edit.

Later on in the editing process we found out that our piece was bordering on being too short. Therefore we decided to add in a few extra scenes that did not require any actors so that it would be easy and convenient for all involved in the making of the main task. This added on a few vital second to our piece which meant it was able to meet the time length criteria. This then left us with editing the piece, adding titles and finding a suitable and non copyright soundtrack to go along with the main task. We managed to get all these done so the group are able to focus on evaluating this piece and answering the evaluation questions to a suitable and high standard.