Practical Task - Prop Creation

Practical Task - Prop Creation

My practical task was to create props which could potentially be used in our final opening. I did some research into what categories of props were used in the genre that we are focusing on, which is psychological horror. The main prop areas which are important in this genre are:

• Religious Symbols 
• Keys and Locks
• Dolls
• Masks
• Mirrors

I initially wanted to focus on mirrors, as I thought by smashing a mirror in different ways, I could distort the visuals which would create different effects and enable the audience to see more than they usually would. I then realised that this could also work without smashing the mirrors (as this is bad luck and very dangerous), so I looked at using mirrors which aren't broken. 

I took photographs of all the mirrors which were available to me around my house, ensuring that in each shot, you couldn't see the reflection of the camera. 

There is use of shadow in this shot and only the top of the bannister is visible as well as the blank walls which adds a sense of mystery and the unknown, because the audience are forced to only see the reflection in the mirror as this is the only area which they have been permitted to see.

This photograph is also very effective for the horror genre as the reflection in the mirror is significantly darker than the rest of the shot, which creates shadows and areas of complete darkness, which therefore controls what the audience are able to see.

 The final shot which was taken in a bedroom mirror, it shows wardrobe doors slightly ajar in the reflection. This creates a sense of mystery as the audience may assume there is something behind the doors in the darkness. 

I then wanted to focus on creating a prop which could be used with our initial idea for our opening scene. As our idea incorporates ears and the removal of ears, I decided to attempt making a jar of ears. 

This was difficult to do as obviously I couldn't fill the jar with real ears, so I decided to print off a page of ears and put them into the jar to see if it looked realistic enough.

 This is my favourite photograph that I took of the jar of ears because it is far away enough to see the edge of the jar, but close enough that you can see the detail in each ear. Also, the focus is on the jar rather than the ears which adds a blurred effect onto the ears,making them look more realistic.

Overall, this prop creation wasn't too difficult to make, but very hard to photograph because of the reflection on the jar. If I were to do it again, I would try and use minimal lighting in the room, to reduce reflection.