Foundation production - Group 2: 2014

The purpose of our rough cut was to get a vague idea of what our final opening sequence is going to look like. Also, by having a rough cut we could then present it to the class and receive some feedback of what works well, what doesn't and what we can do to improve.

Our feedback
Strengths:

It was effective having Max revealed on the opposite side of the road.
The way max chloroformed his first victim had interesting angles to it.
The lighting in the alleyway was the most effective as it appeared sinister.
Tracking shot in the train station tunnel looked really smooth and worked well in being positioned with the character.
Establishing pan helped to create the urban setting we were hoping to achieve, revealing the surroundings.
Nice shots of main character, including different angles and close ups to identify the character.
Reverse shots were sharp and tight which conveyed facial reactions clearing and displaying emotions.

Weaknesses:

There was a slight bump in one of the tracking shots.
The panting of the main character when she wakes up is about out on sync.
Track up of Max is not needed.

Evaluation:
To improve our final opening sequence, we need to either reshoot the scene in the tunnel with the track or edit the bump to cut it out. We need to edit the panting so that the sound is in sync with the actions and finally add sound and integrate titles to finish our opening sequence.

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Group: A Change in Treatment

Main Changes

Due to the limited timing of only 2 minutes, we all decided to take out the idea of the friends arriving to meet Jane at the train station. This decision was made as we felt it wasn't necessary and would incorporate a more sinister feel with Jane being on her own.
As we are amongst the winter months currently, the issue with lighting forced us to film the train station scenes during the day. This would enable us to get clean and accurate shots in which will make our final opening sequence as professional as possible.
The group decided to use a red marker pen to cross out the pictures of the girls faces instead of a scalpel, as none of us had access to a scalpel so the realistic option was to use a pen. This is just as effective as a scalpel would be and possibly even more effective, as the red pen appears visible to the camera.
Throughout Wednesday 22/01/14 lesson, the group travelled down to High Brooms Station to film the final shots of the dream sequence as well as the platform sequence. However, whilst we were there we faced the issue of not having permission to film on the platform. We managed to film the final parts of the dream sequence successfully although had to re-think the platform shots. After discussion, we decided to film at a bus stop near to High Brooms Station instead.

Group: Reflection on Wednesdays 29/01/14 lesson

Emma-Louise-Did further research into a title analysis
Charlie-Was primary editor for the new footage and successfully integrated it into our existing rough cut.
Amelia-Was secondary editor and worked on the titles and putting then on to the animatic.

Monday, 27 January 2014

Animatic

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Feedback 2 - Mrs Fernandez

Emma, Amelia, Charlie,

Well done - the blog is shaping up to be level 4 evidence of group planning and concept development. Your pitch demonstrated that you had worked extremely hard to research forms and conventions and that you had considered all angles of your treatment and character motivation. There were gaps, however on technical ideas, however you have reflected on this and using recces and test shooting, you are working though issues related to the train station location, amount of content you had planned for 2 minutes and other complexities in your initial pitch. Nevertheless, it is better to have a wide range of ideas and cut it down, than the opposite. Final point about the pitchl in future, make sure that you rehearse and plan timings carefully as yours did run on considerably and would have benefitted from editing.

In order to work towards level 4 planning - you should now:
1. post audience research, results and a reflection on how this informed your concept development
2. Tidy up blog - all posts should have highlighted key words, lots of still frame images / clips, colour to help read sub headings, avoid great long paragraphs, but instead break up to bullet points so that you demonstrate L4 use of ICT in presentation
3. evidence of your storyboarding and animatic, with titles
4. Clear reflection on how your treatment has changed
5. Amelia and Emma - technical analysis needs reflection at end and clear link between this process and your concept development
6. recce photos / images from shoots - make these post much more visual

You are using the blog well to document what you are doing each lesson, however you also need to include detail on how your concept is developing and changing. Stills from footage taken and what you have learnt from it would be very useful evidence.

Friday, 24 January 2014

ER; Title Research

True Detective (2014) — Art of the Title

Assess:
The title appears through a closing gap in the shape of a cross before vanishing. This has religious connotations, which is something often featured in horror. The writing has a texture to it which reflects the hellish scenes shown previously, like flames. The font is bold (vital to see the texture) in capital evenly spaced characters while the colours used are all shades of red to portray death, danger and hell. The actual title is portrayed to actually be printed on the metal cross which makes it conveys realism. It then disappears in a distorted movement into the cross, as if it is being swallowed up with the light. The image can already be seen through the cross which shows the silhouette of an expanse of grass with fire.

How we will take inspiration:
We have looked into many title sequences for inspiration, this one stood out as we believe it is possible to recreate and will make our horror opening much more professional looking and even scarier. We want to use the method of showing the image through the cross in our piece because we feel it will be very effective in establishing the horror genre.

Thursday, 23 January 2014

Group: Reflection on Thursdays 23/01/14 lesson

Within todays lesson, Amelia completed editing all the footage we have shot so far, Emma-Louise continued adding sound onto the animatic as well as uploading it onto youtube and Charlie documented our progress so far as well as looking at different title styles we could use.

Group: Reflection on Wednesdays 22/01/14 lesson

In Wednesdays lesson, we began to film scenes from High Brooms train station of the final parts of the dream sequence and the parts in which are on the platform of the station. Whilst Amelia took on the role of lead camera women, Charlie and Emma-Louise played two of the main actors who feature within the opening sequence. We managed to film the final parts of the dream sequence within the tunnel at High Brooms, however didn't manage to film the scenes on the station platform. After having a discussion about the train station location, we came to the conclusion that it may appear difficult for the audience to interpret the idea that Emma-Louise's death is nothing to do with Charlie's current location within the narrative. We thought it would cause confusion and so wanted to avoid the idea altogether. Therefore, when we arrived back at school all 3 group members decided on an alternative location of a bus stop. The bus stop we are planning to use is one very near to High Brooms train station and we choose this particular bus stop as it provides an interesting visual background of a passing train. This can then be linked in with the dream sequence filmed in the train station tunnel, as it can reveal that the murderer is closer than she thinks.

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Group: Reflection of Tuesdays 21/01/14 lesson

Within todays lesson, all 3 group members were assigned different tasks to be completed.

Amelia continued editing the new footage on premiere (perfecting the timing of each shot) and acting as lead editor for the group.
Emma-Louise continued including sound on the animatic.
Charlie wrote the post updates of what we have achieved within each lesson so far, as well as acting as a secondary editor to Amelia.

Group: Reflection of Mondays 20/01/14 lesson

During the lesson, all 3 of the group members were assigned individual tasks to complete.

Amelia began to edit the new footage we had recorded from the weekend on premiere and acted as lead editor for the group.
Emma-Louise continued the development of our animatic (adding sound and tidying it up).
Charlie added the footage recorded from Friday onto the location reccie we pursued earlier, as well as acting as a secondary editor to Amelia.

We all worked on our tasks throughout the lesson, having achieved quite a lot within the hour. Amelia managed to edit together half of the footage recorded from the weekend, Emma-Louise included the majority of the sound onto the animatic, however not quite completing all of it and Charlie added some examples of the footage from Friday onto the location reccie.

Group: Reflection of Fridays 17/01/14 lesson

On Friday, Charlie and Amelia went on a practice shoot to High Brooms station (during lunch) with an aim to investigate how our final footage would look using different camera angles. Whilst at the station, we decided that the time of day was suitable for when we actually want to film, between 12:30 and 1:30pm, when there is still light available. We also discovered that the time of day was convenient for us to film, as the station was abandoned with only a few people being present at times when a train arrived at the platform. We recorded footage of ourselves walking past a convex mirror as we thought this looked very sinister and therefore would look effective to an audience. We further went onto record footage within the train station tunnel, which provided an eerie feel as it appeared damp and closed in; we felt this image of the tunnel would be very conventional of a horror opening sequence and would be an element we could incorporate into our final production. Whilst we were at the station, we were lucky enough to record an oncoming train in which gave us a much clearer idea of what angles we could use within our opening sequence. We also gained an idea of what technical aspects we could include within each shot, such as a pan, track up and what we could use for our establishing shot.

After we were satisfied that we had gathered recordings of all parts of the station we were planning to use, we came back to school to work on our props, risk assessments and call sheets. Whilst Amelia took the role of producing the chloroform bottle she had collected from the art department, Charlie completed the risk assessment and call sheets for all 3 of our chosen locations. Unfortunately Emma-Louise couldn't be with us on this day due to flooding and closed motorways, affecting her travel to get into school.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

Shoot 1 Saturday 19th

These are screenshots from the scenes we filmed at the weekend.

Attic-Our location for the 'shed' scenes were changed to an attic. This was much better as we could film at any time of day as no outside light could enter the shot. We also did not get any noise from the outside world which is easier to work with. It was much easier to film in this dry, warm setting then in the cold and damp shed.

Hadlow Road

Alley off Hadlow Road

Murder board in attic

Swings-We had to change the location of the swings we wanted to film at as Tonbridge park was still flooded. This ended up working to our advantage as it was much more abandoned which is much more practical for filming a horror in.

Thursday, 16 January 2014

ER; Institutional Context

Discuss the ways in which films are produced and distributed

Due to the ever changing technological advancements in film and massive competition, the ways in which they are produced and distributed has evolved over time. Producing and distributing successful films is harder than ever now due to this. With digital technology it’s easier than it used to be to make a film, meaning almost anyone can make one. This is setting the bar higher and changed the definition of a successful film from what it was before. Industrial and independent films both aim to make three times their budget in order for their films to be classed as a success. Advantages of an industrial film is that they have ultra-high budgets ensuring them to get hold of the newest, most expensive technology in order to get the best quality. They also normally get the A-listers, to attract audiences. Independent films rely on acting and narrative to gain popularity. Industrial films have a much bigger crew which can be an advantage and disadvantage because, it means it gets done quicker and more efficiently but it's also more expensive to transport everyone around to different locations. Times Warner is a conglomerate that owns many subsidiaries, including Warner Bros. and Vertigo Films. Warner Bros. is an industrial film distributor while Vertigo Films is independent.
An example of an industrial film is The Conjuring (2013), which was directed by James Wan. It had a budget of $20 million while it's box office was $318,000,141. It was heavily promoted as "based on a true story" to attract mass audiences. It was filmed mainly at EUE/ Screen Gem Studios as well as locations in Wilmington, North Carolina. Special features such as behind the scenes footage and deleted scenes were included in the DVD and Blu-Ray release to draw in more consumers. The first promotional images for The Conjuring were released in November 2012 and a teaser trailer was premièred at the New York 2012 Comic Con. This demonstrates a typical marketing campaign of an industrial film, and it worked as it received nearly 15 times its budget.
An example of an independent film is A Night In The Woods (2011), directed by Richard Parry. Independent films usually have a low budget and cost less to produce. The film is shot in the style of Blair Witch Project, like found footage so it allows it to be very low budget. The film was premièred at a UK film festival and most of its marketing was through Youtube. The use of social networking sites to promote films is increasing rapidly as it is a fast and easy way to share and used by most of the target audience (male 15-25 year olds). There is no official website for this film so it relied solely on its trailer going viral on Youtube.
Both industrial and independent films have no choice but to use the internet in some way for their marketing scheme unless they want their film to be a flop. Social networking in particular has become very important in promoting new films. The main difference between the two types of film is the budget and what they can do with it. Industrial films can afford the newest equipment and the biggest A-listers while independent films have to keep everything low budget in order to make a successful movie.

Monday, 13 January 2014

Schedule for filming

We have planned to start filming this Sunday (3-4:30 for setting up the scene then on till 7 for filming.)- The scenes that are to be filmed in Tonbridge (shed, Hadlow Road, Park) the murders of characters played by Emma-Louise Richardson and Izzy Smith and the scenes of the murderer in the shed.
The following Wednesday we shall go to our final location, high brooms station. We will set up our location and start filming scenes of Charlie and max. At around 4.10 we will be met by Hannah Reynolds and Izzy Smith where we will proceed to finish the last of our shots.
Our leeway period is the weekend following, this will be used to film, or re-film anything more that we need to.
We then have another two, three weeks to edit before we move onto the evaluation of our opening.

Group: Pitch Feedback

The Foreshadowing

Strengths

Our context is very strong, we have a clear idea of the storyline behind our opening sequence and therefore we can construct our shots easily, having an idea of how we want them to look.
We have a lot of influences from psychological horror films which have inspired us to create our opening sequence, this will go in our favour as we will have lots of shots to select from.
We managed to incorporate a variety of ideologies and representations of our characters within our pitch, to illustrate how they are going to be communicated to an audience clearly.

Weaknesses

We have a lot of content to try and fit into a time limit of 2 minutes. This could prove to be a struggle to fit every shot into the sequence without going over the time limit, therefore we will need to make some adjustments as a group to decide the exact shots we wish to include.
The only question we received at the end of our pitch was that our idea sounded like it was meant to be within the middle of a film, instead of at the beginning. We need to take this comment on board and make our opening seem like it is the beginning of a film by including opening credits and integrating a title scene.
One concept we were lacking within our pitch was the development of technical aspects we are going to include within our opening sequence. From this feedback, we have now gained a wide knowledge about what types of shots we are going to include (e.g. low angled shots to create a sense of authority) and what movements (e.g. pan and track).

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Survey Monkey

Click here to take survey

Pitch schedule

After school

Amelia-Write up script for pitch on the areas you are presenting.

Charlie-Write up script for pitch on the areas you are presenting.

Emma-Louise-Finish questionnaire, then upload to blog and send link me Amelia and Charlie allowing them to forward this on to horror critics.

Lunch

Amelia-Create your slides on the prezi. (pictures and bullet points)

Charlie-Create your slides on the prezi. (pictures and bullet points)

Emma-Louise-Write up script for pitch on the areas you are presenting.

Lesson

Amelia- Practise pitch and edit prezi.

Charlie-Practise pitch and edit prezi.

Emma-Louise-Create your slides on the prezi. (pictures and bullet points)

Group: Location Reccie

High Brooms Train Station

What is the hazard?

The noise of the train passing by could cause a disruption when filming, it is fairly loud and could make our opening sequence seem unprofessional.

As we are currently within the winter months, filming at around 4-7 o clock in the evening could prove to be quite difficult as we will not have a lot of time before darkness is upon us. This will make our footage appear too dark and be unsuccessful as both characters and surroundings will not be visible to viewers.

When using the equipment around and within the train station, we will need to consider where we place it at all times as there will be passengers on the platform as well as ourselves.

Also, when filming we will need to be aware of our own safety as it is a train station and a dangerous place to be if not behaving in a sensible, adult like manor.

Who/what might be harmed and why?

Passengers standing on the platform waiting to get onto a train may feel offended by us filming, this could be because we may accidentally capture them within a shot. However, we would not use this within our footage as it would to some extent ruin it.

If the weather decides to rain on the day of filming, the camera equipment (e.g. tripod and camera), would get damaged.
Also, we would need to take care if it was to rain on the day of filming at we could be at risk of slipping over. This could not only injure ourselves by equipment as well if carrying it in our hands.

How will you reduce the risk?

In case of concerned passengers, the reason as to why we are filming upon a train station platform would be explained if necessary.

If it was to rain, precautions would have to be taken in order to keep the camera equipment safe, we would do this by covering them up with plastic bags or cases to ensure no technical damage.
To avoid the loudness of an arriving train, we would need to film when there is no train at the station. This would provide us with near to silence, giving our footage a sinister and edgy feel whilst also appearing professional.
There is not much we can do to avoid to darkness of the day, but we could alternatively film at an earlier time during the day to ensure we have enough light to film decent shots.