Monday 17 March 2014

Evaluation Question 6:


Evaluation question 5:


Evaluation question 4:



Evaluation question 3:



Evaluation Question 2:

Evaluation Question 2:

This is a texted and put together answer to the evaluation question 2

Evaluation Question 1:

Evaluation Question 1:


 
In conclusion our film conforms to most of the genres common features but we have put in our own twists to make our film unique
Our final film!!!!

Film Poster

We are going to use this, created on photoshop for the final clip of our opening sequence instead of our current one because our current one is too simple and basic as it is on paper.


Friday 14 March 2014

Evaluation quick change

I am thinking of doing Food Menu's and a Slide rocket also to show the evaluation answers

Evaluation Presentation Methods

This is my list of the methods I am going to use and which question i am going to do each method for:


Different Presentation ideas

We want to use a different method of portraying answers to the evaluation questions, this is a list we have made of different methods we could use:


Tuesday 11 March 2014

Newest Version of our film

This is our new film, for some reason after export conversion it has become slightly jumpy but not too bad, we may change this in the future but this for now is the final copy


Original Copy of film

This is the original copy of our film, it is very shaky it is for comparison to our new one, we also tried to get several shots worth into one which we didn't do in the newest version of the film.


Monday 10 March 2014

Quick Opening Sequence Information

Our opening sequence originally was over 4 minuets so i have had to cut down every clip as much as possible with still showing the meaning of it to make sure that the opening sequence is the required 2 minuets

Music for opening sequence

For the music we used recommendations from Winston Diep (I interviewed him for the music position earlier in the blog)

We used two different types of Strings which are non copywrited because they are the basic ones provided and unprotected by apple, they are violin and orchestral based
We also used the piano because it adds suspense to the opening sequence, it lasts for the entire 2 minuets and we put in a diminuendo at the end

To make the music we used GarageBand because it is already on the computers and is extremely easy to use

Live Type and information

For the titles in the opening sequence we are using Livetype, I think that it gives a better range of functions for the text that goes on screen than Final cut

We had the titles set with the opening sequence but our teachers did not like the fonts that we were using so we changed it to a more appropriate one and it should be good now, we only have 5 different titles. We have such few titles because it is only steve and i that have worked on the film and we didn't want our names coming up every few seconds so we thought a few well placed titles were the best option, it makes the actual filming in the opening sequence look better and actually tell the story instead of moving the audiences attention.

Final Cut information

We are using the editing software of Final Cut Express because it is the one our teachers have recommended and because it has such a diversity of functions that can be used, it is also very simple to use once you have learnt the basics, which I have now and am starting to enjoy the editing process

Editing Information

I have been editing the video, I didn't actually know there was a tool bar so once i had finished cutting it all it was very useful to find out that this excised, a little too late there but i know for next time now.

We are using dip to black colour dissolves between clips, originally it was going to be between every clip but now we have placed them only where there is a change in time and/ or place, we did this because it seems to be in the opening sequences of psychological thrillers

After Filming Review

The previous video gives detail on the shredding and the bike scenes so this is about the woods scenes:

It was a bright morning so maybe not the ideal filming conditions for what we wanted because we needed a kind of dark persona
This was the only downfall except dog walkers keep interrupting our shooting

We learnt a lot from film there, such as making sure the camera had battery and memory... Which it didn't so it took us a while to get set up but it was a good shoot

The clip where we look over Steve's shoulder at the letter is a great shot and that is all of our filming done

Finished Filming, How day 1 went

So we have done all of the filming! there is still a small amount of editing to do on-top of this but we are almost finished!

Here is a video showing how the day 1 of the new shooting went:


Wednesday 5 March 2014

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Improvements and Clips that need shooting

This is a list that Sir has helped me write to help us film again:

Re-shoot external of van with back door open
Push in of back of van to the door handle using tripod wherever possible
One hand under, one hand on the side
Do inside the van again, no zoom, track the arm down to the laptop, do several times
Pause before cutting
Make a shot for Steve to push the bike into
Close up of broken bike
Steve finding bike, no camera movement
Close up of angry Steve
Keep the shredding
Close up on paper
Steve coming out the door
Close up on Steve’s reaction

Why we are restarting

We are restarting this is why:


Day 2 of filming

Day 2 of filming:

Scene 2:

Clip 1:
This is me shredding pieces of paper, i couldn't find any letter so i had to use the paper we used in the van as photos of bikes, this is visible in the clip but the message is still given so it isn't too bad

Clip 2:
This is Steve finding the shreds of his letters, this is a good clip because he looks nice and angry about it and confused as to why this is happening to him

Day 1 of filming

Day 1 of filming:

We did the filming of the bicycle scene,

Clip 1:
I went well, it was hard to film in the van because of the lack of light we wanted to portray, spacing wise we had to open the back door so it wasn't as dark as we would have liked it but it wasn't too bad

Clip 2:
The next clip is the van in front of the house, this was an easy 5 second clip

Clip 3:
This is Steve walking up to my house with the bike, it was easy i just was a bit shaky when filming it, this may have to be re-filmed

Clip 4:
This is Steve finding the broken bike, I cut off some of his body while filming this but it went well

Props

We will use this chair and laptop in the van for the first scene, i will be looking up bikes on the laptop



Shredder Prop

This is the shredder we will use, we will just put pieces of paper into it for the letter shredding scene.


Bike Prop

This is my bike, we will be using it as a prop in the bike scenes:
It has easy quick release wheels so will be easy to take apart for a quick scene


Monday 24 February 2014

Van Mise-ene-scene

We have been criticised with our use of Mise-ene-scene, we have decided that we are going to try to use my step dads van (As seen bellow) for the villains lair, this is a more creepy and dark place for a villain to be planning crimes.


Where we could film

These are all of the usable woods for the final scene in our opening sequence that can be used, these are the woods and parks with wooded areas nearest to steve and I.



Thursday 13 February 2014

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Pitch

We have been told to make a pitch for out film for our teacher so this is what i have done!

It is bellow:


Here is another prospective title:


Title we could use

Here is another title we could use, we are doing titles that revolve around the theme of psychological thriller so all the titles revolve around the Halloween or hallows title that we have narrowed it down to.




Tuesday 11 February 2014

Here is another title we could use:


Title

This could be our films title, we are drawing up a few examples at the moment:

Storyboard and plot

Storyboard and plot

Script by ChristohersonSyko on GoAnimate
Interviewing myself:


This is the budget for the film, because it is an easy and simple opening sequence and we are doing it all ourselves it will only cost us about £4 in total! Hopefully.


The Script:


Music interview

Interview with Winston:

He is one of the people who may be doing the music in our opening sequence


Stages in our film

We have plotted the stages of our film so we can script it:


Monday 10 February 2014

possible shooting locations

This is my house:


It has a large field in the middle of the close:


Also because it is a close a view of being trapped could be made there is only one way in, one way out:




Possible shooting locations

This is Steve's house, it is a location that we could use, people could hide in the Alley next to his house and it has a big open space in front of it which could be utilized:





Shooting locations

I have gone to the woods in Petts Wood:


I remember the tunnel at the entrance to the woods so went to take pictures of a prospective filming location that we could use.
Here are the pictures bellow, it would be even better at night!







Friday 7 February 2014

Researching a director

David Fincher:





















David Fincher is the Director responsible for several of the best rated films in the industry,
These include:

Seven:


Alien 3:



Fight Club:






















Some of his most famous films are Horrors, Psychological thrillers or action based.
He started his early life after graduating film school changing film rolls on different sets for example Star Wars.
He moved onto eventually directing his own films.
I have watched some of his films for example the ones above.
He is a great film director and is voted number 12 on IMDB's best directors list for his work

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Genre Podcast

We have made a podcast, it is about the genre and the certificate of a film.
It gives details of why we have chosen the genre and what certificate the film will be.


Monday 3 February 2014

Possible film title

We have not yet fully decided on a film title but as we are a phycological thriller and we want to revolve around halloween this is an example of a banner we could use for our film:


Film Logo

I re-did this logo because the arrow on the left was set behind the arrow on the right at the top so the logo didn't go round properly, this is the improvement:

This required using layers on photoshop



Film logo

I have also created a logo for an editing company that we could include in our opening sequence, this fits in with the general order of an opening sequence (We have a prezzi on this earlier on in the blog):


Possible film logo

I have had another idea that I think may be better for a logo for our production company for our opening sequence as seen bellow:


Possible Film Logo

As Steve and I are producing this opening sequence we will need companies set up for our production and for example editing company, and a production company

This is a first attempt at a logo for a production company.

Mergers of companies often have the initials of the creators as part of the company name and as we would be a small independent this is what I have done.
Also many logos in this genre of film or who have dealing with this genre of film are dark so I have also done that

I just did this on Microsoft word to start off with.

I will discuss this logo with Steve and see where we go from here with it.


Se7en

This weekend in the theme of psychological thrillers i watched Se7en!!!!!
I think this is one of the strangest films i have ever watched, i'm actually going to watch it again because there is so many clever things brought into the film.
This is the films description:
Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.
Modus Operandi meaning: A method of operating or functioning. So basically his plan.

Whoever wrote this film must be the most creatively dark person you could meet or studies historical crimes because some of this stuff i would never think of! It's FREAKY!!!

This kind of gives me an understanding of what psychological thrillers are though.
They have a normal story revolved around a more dark issue.

In this film its two detectives one retiring one taking his place, they investigate the murders, every 10-15 minuets there is another dark murder.

This is similar to Cabin in the woods because they are going out to party and then monsters are sent, the monsters kill and the characters team up for a bit then another killing

The film is very dark in places giving me the view that, that's what psychological thrillers should be like, light and very dark


If someone asked me if they should watch this, i would defiantly say yes!

Sunday 2 February 2014

Cool Technology

This is early technology and it wouldn't be available for me to use on this blog but this would be great for pictures of where to film, setting the scene for whoever is making the film. Because you are taking a 360 degree picture all of the scenery in a scene could be thought about as well as it just being an awesome piece of tech!

Click the link below the picture to watch the video it's amazing!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25926300?SThisFB

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25926300?SThisFB

Friday 31 January 2014

Film Sound

Sound wise in films there are 3 different types of sound that films are made up of:

- Music
- Sound affects
- Narrative/Human voice

These are essential ingredients to film

These three aspects must be balanced properly to create the proper emphases for the desired effect. Topics that these relate to are dialogue, sound and music

Background Music

Background music in films we can use as a guide in our film:


Background music is used to:
Add emotion and rhythm to a film. Usually it isn't meant to be noticeable, it often provides a tone or an emotional attitudes towards the story and or the characters depicted. In addition background music often foreshadows a change in mood. For example dissonant music may be used in film to indicate an approaching menace or disaster.
Background music may aid:
Viewer understanding by linking scenes. For example, a particular musical theme associated with an individual character or situation may be repeated at different points in a film in order to remind audiences of a continual set of ideas or motifs.
Film sound is comprised of:
Conversations and innovations. We have come to expect and acceleration of music during car chases or jumping sounds in horror films. It is important to note as well that sound is often brilliantly conceived. The effect of sound are often largely subtle and only processed by out subconscious. Yet it gives us awareness of the film.

Age ratings

For age ranges of film Steve and I have made a podcast to say the age range of our film and why, the BBFC or British Board Film Classification, is a official UK independent business which classifies films. Films are classified as follows:

Age ratings:

Conventions of a Psychological Thriller

This is a helpful link i have found which can guide us through the Mise-ene-scene of a Psychological thriller, as well as the sound used in them. Steve and i will have to work through most of these together and mutually agree on what to do but we can link aspects of this presentation into it all.



(This is not by me but i found it useful)

Filming Rules

To further explain one of my previous posts on the rules of filming our preliminary project below are the definitions of them:

Match of action:

Either an action commenced in shot A is completed in shot B, or an action in shot A is mirrored by an action in shot B, for example when we cut from character A in location A reading a letter to character B in location B reading the same letter.

180 Degree Rule:

A rule that states that a camera should be places somewhere inside the 180 degrees on a particular side of an invidible line of a shot contiang two characted. If the camera crosses the line confusion is caused for the film viewer because it looks like the two people are switching places as you move through the film







Shot reverse shot:

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.


Rules of Thirds:
This is a rule where an object only takes up 6 out of 9 sections of a 9 square grid, this is so a scenery can be set for the shot, this is explained below, the picture on the left focuses too much on the main rock, were as on the picture on the rights more of a scenery is set


File:RuleOfThirds-SideBySide.gif

Se7en

Se7en is a psychological thriller that i want to watch for analysis before making the opening sequence to get used to how to film psychological thrills for when we film our opening sequence, this bellow a presentation i have found about an analysis of the Se7en's opening sequence.



(This is not by me but I found it useful)

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Preliminary Project

This is mine and Steve's Preliminary project that we filmed
During exporting of the film (which i have done 4 times) the film becomes jumpy at the start which is an issue i cannot figure out how to fix so i have left it the way it is in an effort to spend my time on the other aspects of the opening sequence planning.

This has given me lots more camera skills than i had before and let me know how to enforce rules within the filing of an opening sequence. These rules are:
- Match on action
- 180 degree rule
- Shot reverse shot
- Rule of thirds

This has also given us editing skills that we did not have before which well help us in the final copy of the film



Wednesday 22 January 2014

Survey

Steve and I are having issues trying to find the time to use the green screen again so because the editing process is such a long one we have decided to display our second survey results with graphs to better display the results as a majority is more quantitative information: