Credit Fonts - 28/11/11

In my double Media lessons today, I went through one of my favourite font designing websites - www.dafont.com - to pick a few examples of fonts I liked that we could use for our credits. The criteria that I was looking for when flicking through the pages was:

• It had to represent our genre - the horror/thriller genre had to be shown through this font, just like the title font, because I want the audience to know by just looking at the credits what film genre it is.
• Similar to our title font - this meant it had to be a definite horror/thriller type, and be a bit unordinairy (e.g. the smudged effect that we have on our title).
• Would fit well with the scenes it's going to appear on - the scenes that are appearing at the same time only last about 2 seconds max and are extremely fast cuts, so the font had to be something that reflected a fast paced, tense atmosphere that would be going on in the film at that time.

Here is 8 examples of what I found, the reasons why I picked them and why I like them:



I picked this one because it matched my criteria of being unordinairy looking, and has a similar effect of being smudged across the page. I like this font because it looks quite rough around the edges, as if someone's just scribbled it out quickly, which reflects the fast paced atmosphere I want to introduce. Although, this font does look slightly too young for the audience that we are producing to and might not get the scary/horrorness across.



I picked this particular font because it is similar to the font of our title because it looks as if it's again been written in blood, and this would be good because it doesn't take any attention away from the title font because it's not quite as dramatic or as important. I like this font because even though it's similar to our title, it almost creates a build up to the font of 'Necrophobia' which makes it stand out more and seem more powerful.

 

I thought the effect that the beginning letter has around it seems like it's splattered across the page roughly again, which is good because it shows the careless and mental nature of our main character. I like the fact that it seems quite blurred and not fully focussed which is great because it wouldn't take too much attention away from the scene that's going on, although it might not take any attention because it doesn't stand out much.

 

This font stood out to me because it's similar to our title font in the way some bits seem scratched out and there are missing sections of each letter, which I thought was good because it could be showing the saneness that is missing to our main characters mind. Although, I think we would have the same problem as  the first example on this one too because it doesn't seem appropriate for our mass audience and I don't think they would be attracted to the 'child-like' nature of this.

 

This is pretty much the same as some of the previous examples, but what stood out on this one is the boldness of the actual letters, and the view of what looks like again a smudged/dripping effect to the font. I like this because it's like it's written in the blood of the victims, and it's dripping down the page.

 

This one stands out in the collection that I picked because it has a very different design to it, and instead of being quite boldly smudged across the page, it looks like it's just a few splatters of it, or as if someone has smashed a mirror above it and there are shards all over it. The font itself is extremely bold so it would definitely stand out which is what we ideally want.

 

This potential credit font is the boldest and largest of the actual letters, which does suggest the powerfulness of our film and the main character. And also, only the 2 letters features the effect so I thought this might be good because the effect wouldn't take the attention away from the audience actually reading the writing.




This font is one of my favourite's because it looks like someone had stood above the text and poured a pot of thick paint down it to make the writing, as you can tell from the dripping effect on the third letter. This also features some of the other points I liked in the other fonts I chose: the boldness of the letters and the missing pieces of each one.



I did complete this work by myself, so next time I meet up with Laura Jeffreson, I am going to show her these examples and we're both going to come to a decision of which one we both like best. The one we choose will then feature in our final product as the credits for the actors.

WHY HAVE I DONE THIS?I wanted to make sure our titles stood out and were suitable for the film we wanted to create, to make it more realistic and perfect for our audience.

Week 9 Action Plan

What are we going to do this week?

• Find exactly the right pieces of music for every single scene we need it for
• Choose the other font we're using for our credits
• Start editing our film

We're going to complete these 2 plans together as a group.

Music Ideas - 28/11/11

Over the last week, I have been looking at some sound effects and background music on Youtube - www.youtube.com - that would be suitable for certain scenes in our film. Here is what I found:

 This is a sound effect of a girl screaming which we need in one of our scenes which cuts to black. 

This is just the brief idea of what we want (the sound of a fire crackling), but this isn't exactly the sound that we want, so we're going to have to do some more research on other sound effect websites to find what we want.

These are the footsteps that we need for the scene where the camera is focussed on the door, and all that can be heard is our main character's footsteps walking closer.

 Even though we didn't officially decide we wanted this sound in our film, I came across it when looking for the others and thought it would sound good in the background of when the victims are running to imitate their own heartbeats slowly increasing.

 When I created my animatic, I used these pieces of music, and also some more pieces which me and Laura found on Garage Band. This included:

• Long, dramatic pieces of music
• Powerful pieces which we could use for our own institution
• Footsteps
• Door creaking open/shut
• Heart beat
• Thunder rolls/Loud bangs for the cuts to black

WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS? 

As we are getting nearer to finishing the filming of our product, finding the right music is getting more and more important, so this will be our main focus for this week and the upcoming ones. 

Necrophobia Storyboard Animatic - 24/11/11

Today, I finished all the editing for my animatic of my storyboard. I did this using the software Final Cut on the computers at school. and in my spare 2 hours I added sound effects and video transitions to the cut out pictures. It did take me a while to get everything I wanted in the right order as it did involve me swapping around some sound effects to match the scenes, but I did manage to complete it and here is what I made:

 WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?

The purpose of this was to experiment with the Final Cut programme that we will be using when we edit our actual film opening. I learnt how to add audio, video transitions, cut and crop pictures and place them in a sequence and how to change them around if I wanted to.

Finished Title Design - 23/11/11

After my skillful group member Laura Jeffreson - http://laurajeffreson.blogspot.com/ - played around with our draft second version of our title design, she managed to make it look even better with the added red effect that we wanted, so now we have a final product.
Here is what our final creation looks like:



As it was me who picked out this font, Laura was keen to have a go at editting it herself using the website Pixlr - www.pixlr.com - to add the redness around the letters to represent the blood and gore of our film.

Denotation: Black writing
Connotation: The colour black is dark, scary and mysterious which is the mood and intensity that our audience would be feeling when watching our film. This connects great with what we want to achieve because it does this already by just looking at the title design.

Denotation: Red colouring

Connotation: This is supposed to reflect the absolute horror, gore and brutal murdering that takes place within the first 2 minutes, and what the rest of the film is based around. The red is quite a tense colour, so it connotes some kind of extreme drama and action.

Denotation: Bold font

Connotation: This connotes the supremeness of the film, as well as the characters and the plot, and suggests that the film is going to be overwhelming for the audience once they have finished watching.

Denotation: Smudged effect

Connotation: Immitating the surrender and innocence of the victims, as if they are smudging their bloody hands against this title, trying to escape from our main character.

Denotation: Black and Red against White background
Connotation: The white background suggests the insane and psychopathical nature, which pretty much sums up our main character. Also, the black and red are opposing colours and contrast well against the white, making them all stand out against each other.

WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?We both worked parts individually and both as a group to improve our previous 'Necrophobia' film title, because we wanted to show our passion for wanting to succeed in this project.

Our Title Design Re-make - 23/11/11

After doing some research about titles and different fonts, and looking at already created horror/thriller film title effects, we came to the conclusion that the title design we had originally created wasn't as good as what we could have made it. When we were looking through some helpful title designing websites, we thought that ours lacked creativity and the uniqueness, and in no time managed to find an even better title creation which we have decided to use instead.

Here is our first title design:

Even though at first we thought this was a good creation because of the appropriateness of the black writing, white background and red/blood effect too it. Although, the font itself is actually quite boring and is well-known and used by most other people, which would mean we haven't really put in a lot of time to come up with a unique one. This is why we decided to search around on various websites and find a much better and more suitable one, and here is what we found:

What we both liked about this title was the really bold font to exaggerate the powerful nature of our film and character, the fact some of the lettering is smudged as if it could have been written in blood (which would relate well to our storyline of a massacre) and also the effect underneath the 2 O letters appear to look like hands, which does insinuate the fact people are trying to escape, yet covered in so much blood and fear.

This isn't the final version of what we want our title to look like, and even though we are keeping this, we're using the same concept as our previous one (the red colour underneath the letters) just to add some colour to it and make the red, blood type effect included in it, because we think it's important.

WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?To make sure our film title is unique to everyone else's, so that our titles stand out to our audience and they can recognise the scary, horror type font is our film. This also shows us using our own initiative and improving previous products to ensure we are making the best we can.

Animatic Part 2 - 21/11/11

As planned, today in my Media Studies double lesson, I worked on creating my animatic using the Final Cut programme on the computer. I did this by using the storyboard images that I cropped and editted at the weekend, and put them all in scene and shot order on Final Cut. When doing this, I kept referring back to my script and storyboard itself, to make sure they were in the correct order, lasting the right amount of seconds, had the right effect on them and looked correct. Once I had arranged them in the right order, I had to click on them and change the seconds that they lasted for. For example, some lasted as long as 11 seconds, whereas others lasted only 2, so I had to individually unpick each one and work on it seperately. After I had done this, I went onto using the video transitions tool on the effects part of the programme, where I was able to change the transitions that happen at the end. I chose 'cross dissolve' for most of the shots, apart from some which varied, as this is what we'll be using for our real project. After I had done this, I spent the rest of the lesson just playing around with some of the tools, including the audio settings, to see how they work and what I can do with them.

Here is a picture of what I got up to:

This shows the computer that I was working on today, with the Final Cut programme up, and me editting some of my storyboard images



I enjoyed putting my storyboard together in a small film like this, and in my next Media Studies lesson, I am planning to do the same thing but with the Preliminary Exercise that we created as groups at the beginning of the course.

WHY HAVE I DONE THIS?
I thought this would be a great opportunity to practice my skills using the Final Cut programme, seeing as this is what we're going to be using when we come to edit and put together our actual film opening. It gave me a chance to experience some of the settings and tools, so that I know most of what I am doing when it comes to the real thing.

Filming Day 3 - 21/11/11

Yesterday, Sunday 20th October, me and Laura Jeffreson - http://laurajeffreson.blogspot.com/ - filmed some more scenes of our film 'Necrophobia'. For these scenes, we required our 3 victim characters, which were Tayla Powell - http://taylaastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/ - Chloe King - http://chloeastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/ - and Nicola Ho - http://nicolaastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/ - who are all Media students too. We also required the location of the Cornfields, the forest by the Cornfields, the Margaret Lloyd playing fields and a section of houses in Grovehill, to shoot the following: (Scene 6, Shot 1 & 2), (Scene 10, Shot 7).

The points we had to remember for this shoot were:

• Other people - as we were filming in a very popular public area, we did encounter on a few people passing by with their dogs, and even some people on horses riding through the Cornfields. As this happened, we had to stop our filming to make sure we didn't pick up any unwanted sounds or people in then background. There wasn't many people that passed through us as we were filming, so we managed to film everything we wanted in the time that we had.
• Health and Safety - our shoots yesterday were in the Cornfield, a forest area by the Cornfield and the Margaret Lloyd playing fields, and because we were having our actors run for about 10 seconds at a time, we had to take into consideration the fact that it had rained the night before, so the grass and mud was slippy. To avoid any injury, and stick to our risk assessment, we made sure we warned our actors before they began running, let them run on longer grass that was less slippery, and told them to make sure their hands are out of their pockets and they aren't wearing anything loose that could make them fall over or hurt themselves.
• Weather - as I said, it had previously rained the night before, so we were a bit unsure whether it was going to continue raining, because it was typically freezing and really dark and gloomy out, but nevertheless, we continued with our plan to film, and luckily the weather held out for us and we were able to do it all successfully.
• Our call list - Our adapted call list for this shoot was: Equipment - Camera, Tripod, Charger, Tape. Notes - Risk Assessment, Script, Storyboard. Crew - Actors, Directors, First Aider, Costume, Refreshments. Health and Safety - First Aider, Risk Assessment. These were all appropriate for the needs of this specific shoot.

The Filming
To begin with, we decided to get the running scenes out of the way first incase the weather changed and decided to rain. Therefore, we walked all the way to the Cornfields first, then the forest area and then finally the Margaret Lloyd playing fields to film (Scene 6, Shot 1 & 2). These shots required 2 different actors, out of our possible 3, to run first for 2 seconds to the right, and then the next for 2 seconds to the left. At the time of shooting, we had a change of plan about what we wanted for Shot 2 of this scene, and when looking at the scenery around us, we thought that filming someone running straight towards the camera would be more effective than having the same thing as before. This meant we used the forest area to set up on the bottom of a small hill, and had our actors run towards us this time. We thought it would be best if we filmed all 3 having a go at both of them, so that when it comes to the editting process we can pick the best ones out of a selection of 6+, so we have a wider range of shots to choose from.

Here are some pictures of what we got up to on the filming set:

This shows Tayla Powell and Chloe King standing at the top of a hill in the Cornfields, preparing to run down

This is of Nicola Ho and Laura Jeffreson testing out the camera and what the shots will look like

Our second location- the forest- this is of our actors getting ready to run towards the camera 

Laura and myself setting up the Tripod and Camera ready to film

After we had filmed these scenes, we had to move to our final destination which was a section of houses in the Grovehill area. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to here from our last setting, and when we got here we were able to set up and film pretty much straight away as we were well planned and focussed on what we were doing. In these houses, we filmed (Scene 10, Shot 7) which is the last shot before the end of the opening, and is off the camera zooming out from this neighbourhood as if it's our main character Steven Turner leaving.

We did plan to film the last few scenes today in Laura's house, but unfortunately, she wasn't well enough for us to do this and when we meet up later on in the week, we'll have to re-schedule a new date for when her house, us and our actors are all free.

Week 8 Action Plan

This week I am going to:

• Continue filming the last parts of our film - only a few more scenes left!
• Practice on Final Cut with our storyboard and Preliminary Exercise material
• Look at possible pieces of music for specific scenes
• Think about another potential title font which may be more appropriate and unique

We are going to complete the first plan together, but the last 3 action plans are what I'm going to do individually, and then feed back to Laura during the week.

Animatic Part 1 - 19/11/11

As part of this weeks Action Plan, I had to make an animatic of our storyboard for our 2 minute film opening. I did this by cutting out each individual screen shot from every storyboard I had created, and then editting the lines, colours and focus of each one so I can put them all together in a short film on the Final Cut programme. I did this using the website Pixlr - http://www.pixlr.com/ - which I have used many times before. I can only complete this part of my animatic, and not put it all together yet until Monday, as the software I need is only at school. Whilst I was completing this, I took some screen shots of what I was doing and put them together using Voice Thread - http://www.voicethread.com/ - so I can view the images whilst talking about what I was doing and why. Here is my Voice Thread:



On Monday, I will use my Media Studies lessons and any other spare time I have to finish this off. Also on Monday, we are filming our final parts of our film and are hoping to have it completed by the end of that day!

WHY HAVE I DONE THIS?This was a good chance for me to look back over my storyboard and remember the reasons why I did everything I did in them (e.g the black and white editting, what's happening in the shots, the camera angles, etc) and it also will give me an opportunity to practice using the Final Cut editting programme, which is important because that's what we'll be using in a few weeks time to complete our actual film opening. Even though at first I did get slightly confused with the Pixlr programme and some of the tools, I managed to teach myself them and was able to complete it quite successfully.

Filming Day 2 - 14/11/11

Due to re-arrangements, we begun our second day of filming today in the free lessons that we had in school. The location we used for the scenes we shot today were at my other group members house, Laura Jeffreson - http://laurajeffreson.blogspot.com/. The scenes that we shot were our main establishing shot, (Scene 1, Shot 1) (Scene 3, Shot 1 & 2) (Scene 4, Shot 1) and (Scene 5, Shot 2, 3 & 4). This involved us needing our main character Conor Willis - http://thatone-conorwastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/ - and our close friend Kiran Saghir.

The things that we needed to take into consideration for todays shooting was:

• Other people - as we were filming in Laura's house, there wasn't many health and safety problems or risks from our risk assessment, other than Laura's family members in her house, or people passing in the street. To avoid this, we had to do a few re-take's when we were filming outside so that passing cars or people weren't in them, and luckily Laura's family members weren't awake to disturb us.
• The weather - there was 2 main shots that we were filming outside, so we had to make sure the weather wasn't going to disrupt us or prevent us from doing this. Somehow, the weather managed to hold out for us and we were able to get the shots that we wanted.
• Our call list - the call list that we specifically designed for today was: Equipment - Camera, Tripod, Microphone, Charger, Tape, Weapons. Notes - Script, Storyboard. Crew - Actors, Directors, Costume, Refreshments. It was important we called out these things before we began filming to make sure we had everything we needed.

The Filming
Laura's house was the centre point that all of today's filming was focussed on, as most of her family members were out and we could use this to our benefit. We needed a lot of equipment for todays tasks, mainly involving screwdrivers, knives, knife sharpener, hammer and other items our main character was going to use for weapons. As we were filming inside most of the time, we had to make sure the lighting was correct, therefore meaning we could use the lesson we learnt about the red and blue lighting balance to get the correct scene. This was used when we were filming (Scene 5) as the lights were quite bright and yellow in colour, and we needed to adjust them to make them more white, which we were able to do well. We also used our practice of focussing to the best of our ability too, making sure we focussed on areas that we specifically wanted to highlight (for example, the letters that our main character held) so the audience's attention would remain on them just as we want. Here are some pictures I took of us filming:

Our storyboards, script and props on the side working out what we have to shoot



Setting the tripod up in the right position



Me filming a close-up shot

This was us editting the lighting settings on the camera to balance the red and blue and make it more white

Laura outside getting ready to press the doorbell after my signal, as sound for one of the scenes



Our next planned day is fast forward 6 days to Sunday 20th, when we plan to film (Scene 6, Shot 1 & 2), (Scene 7, Shot 1), (Scene 8, Shot 1), (Scene 9, Shot 1) and (Scene 10, Shot 7). This will then leave us to film the rest of the scenes the next day on Monday 21st, if everything goes according to plan, and then be finished and ready to edit by next week!

Evaluation Criteria Lesson - 14/11/11

In todays Media lesson, we went through and discussed the Evaluation Criteria that we will be marked on for our final product. This consisted of 7 different areas:

• There is an understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions
• There is an understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production
• There is an understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary tasks
• There is an understanding on the significance of audience feedback
• There is skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation
• There is ability to communicate 
• There is the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation

This is what they all looked like in their order of importance:

 

 In order to prepare ourselves and help us learn them all easily, we looked at 2 examples of previous pieces of coursework, from the exact same brief that we have. We were given separate sheets to critique and analyse both examples on each of the areas above, and add any additional comments or targets we could have given these groups. Here is a picture of one of the sheets that we worked on:

 

Overall, I thought the first example we looked at was much better than the second one, and I rated the first one with some ticks in the 'Excellent' box rather than just the 'Proficient'. I enjoyed watching the first one more because they used lots of camera angles, had appropriate titles and used the brief of the task set well. The second one was slightly confusing as to the two different parts of it, and I didn't think the music actually suited the scenes that were being shown, and this made it difficult for the audience to understand what was going on. 

WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?

I thought todays lesson was very helpful for us to think about the different things we are going to get marked on, and it gave us the brief of what we need to include in our own one. I think looking at other people's work is also useful to us because points that they have done well, we can adapt into our own, and if we find a weakness in their one, we are less likely to include it in ours. 

Week 7 Action Plan

Our main focuses of this week are:

• To continue filming our scenes
• To upload the images of the final cast members we have picked
• To look more into the sound effects that we need for our scenes, and as we are filming, make notes of what sound effects we need for each one
• Create an animatic of our storyboard to practice our use of this technology

We will both complete these action plans together because at this stage of the coursework it's more about working as a group, as we are into our filming stages and need to complete this together. 

Filming Day 1 - 14/11/11

On Saturday 12th, we began to film the first few scenes of Necrophobia. The first location that we needed was in one of our friends back gardens, where we created a fire and filmed our main character Steven Turner (also known as Conor Willis) ripping up some pieces of paper and setting them alight.

There was lots of things to consider before we began this day of shooting:

• Health and Safety - we were making a fire in someone's back garden, using flammable and hazardous equipment. We had our risk assessment with us so we were able to look back and make sure we were doing everything we needed to stay safe, and we had already discussed previously that we needed a plan if anything went wrong (which thankfully, it didnt!).
• The weather - we were filming outside with a fire, meaning that if it rained, the whole film shoot for the day would be ruined and we would have to re-schedule. Amazingly, this didn't happen, but we did come up with the plan of changing it to Sunday 13th to film the same shots if we needed.
• Our call list - we have made our own call list which we will use at every single film shoot to make sure we have all the equipment and materials we need for that day. Our call list was: Equipment - Camera, Tripod, Charger, Tape. Notes - Risk assessments, Script, Storyboard. Crew - Actors, Directors, First Aider, Costume, Refreshments. Health and Safety - First Aider, Risk Assessment. We adapted our call list to suit what we needed for the day, for example- our first aider (which was myself) was important for this day because we were filming a difficult scene which required us to create a fire, and we knew that in case anything we went wrong, we needed someone like that.

The Filming
(Scene 2, Shot 1), (Scene 2, Shot 2) and (Scene 9, Shot 1) was all that we filmed on this day, and we planned to only do this because we only had 1 hour spare, due to prior engagements, so we decided to get all the fire scenes out of the way first, so that we didn't have to re-make another fire next week as this would waste time. We created this fire in a medium sized metal barrell filled with paper, wood and other flammable materials. At first only smoke was created and our fire kept going out, but eventually we got some high flames and were able to start filming. Overall, I think the whole day was very successful and we managed to get the shots that we wanted in the space of time that we had. Here are some pictures that I took of us filming:

Our location before we set up

Our fire just getting started



Laura setting up the camera and tripod



Laura filming Conor acting



The next day that we are shooting is on Monday 14th, as we were unable to stick to our schedule and film on Sunday 13th because of other committments to directors/actors, and we will be filming (Scene 1, Shot 1), (Scene 3, Shot 1, 2) (Scene 4, Shot 1) and (Scene 5, Shot 2, 3, 4)!

Our Cast - 14/11/11

As we have all cast our actors already, I thought it would be a good idea to upload images of everyone that will be starring in our film opening. Before we asked these people, we had to think of which people best fitted our roles, if they were flexible enough and available at the times that we needed them, and whether they would be willing to put in effort every weekend to complete our coursework.

We ended up casting our fellow Media Studies student Conor Willis - http://thatone-conorwastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/ - as our main character 'Steven Turner'. He best suited our description of being tall, he was willing to put in the time to help us complete our work and we have known him for a long time so we both knew we could trust him to do what we wanted. We originally asked Conor at school whether he'd be interested, and he agreed straight away. Here is a picture of our main character:

Conor Willis a.k.a Steven Turner

Even though the other characters in our film opening are just victims, there is one main victim role that we required a young, teenage girl, who would be willing to act some scenes and deliver some dialogue as well. From this description, we decided on our close friend Kiran Saghir, and when asked she was more than happy to help us. This actor also offered us her house and back garden to film other scenes of our film, so we knew she was trustworthy as a main part. Here is a picture of our first main victim:

Kiran Saghir a.k.a Victim No.1



Further on in our film opening, there is another scene which requires 3 more young, teenage girls as victims, running through a house, into a wardrobe and eventually being found and killed by our main character. The requirements for these cast members were that they needed to look innocent, be of a somewhat small height and be willing to deliver brief dialogue between them. The first three people that came into mind was our close friends again, and fellow Media students, Tayla Powell - http://taylaastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/ - Nicola Ho - http://nicolaastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/ - and Chloe King - http://chloeastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/. This decision of using close friends again to act the main parts was made simply because we knew we could trust them, as Media students themselves, to know how important it is to have actors that are committed and flexible when it comes to filming. Here are pictures of them all:

Tayla Powell a.k.a Victim No.2



Chloe King a.k.a Victim No.3




Nicola Ho a.k.a Victim No.4



All 4 victims (Kiran Saghir, Chloe King, Nicola Ho and Tayla Powell) will feature as the rest of the victims in our film opening too, but their faces won't be shown again so it wouldn't matter. We think as a group we have come up with a good cast and are happy to go ahead and begin filming with them.

WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?
We both took the time to come up with ideas of the requirements we wanted from each character, and therefore, it made it easier for us to choose people to cast. We were lucky enough that all of our actors are close friends and suit the parts perfectly, so we know we can depend on them and get the best result out of this coursework that we can.

Camera Technique's and Lighting Practicing - 9/11/11

In our Media lesson today, we all got a chance to learn some more about the  settings the camera's we're going to use have, and what techniques we could use to improve focussing, lighting and colours. We also looked at an example of a previous film opening of the same brief, and analysed their strengths, weaknesses, and any room for improvement.


What did I learn from the lesson?

• Red and Blue lighting - I learnt that if we are filming in a location that is mainly showing RED/ORANGE lighting and is quite warm in colouring, if we wanted to cool the tone down, we would have to put something BLUE in front of the camera before we start, so that it evens out and we get the white lighting which we want. On the other hand, if the location was mainly showing BLUE lighting, and we wanted to make it warmer and brighter, we would have to do the opposite and place something of the colour RED/ORANGE in front of the camera before filming, to even it out back to white again. This is useful to know before we begin shooting so that we can achieve the right lighting and colouring that we want, and it allows us to practice before hand too.
• Focussing - I learnt that if we are filming a scene and we want a FULL DEPTH type of focussing, then that means all of the shot will be in focus and everything will be clear to the audience. However, if you use the opposite, you can adapt where the main focus is, and blur out the background or unimportant parts of it. This is important to know if we want to draw attention to specific characters or settings, or if we have background scenes that aren't relevant, we can blur them out so the audience is just looking at what we want. Knowing this about focussing was helpful so that we could have a quick practice in lesson, and then we now know how we can use techniques for a certain reason and for a certain effect.

From learning this, we have decided that we are going to use DARK LIGHTING, even though it's going to be editted into Black and White, but this is to reflect the tense, dramatic and mysterious atmosphere that would be created because of our scary plot. We have also decided that we are going to use some full depth focussing, but vary them to create different effects and purposes.

We also went through a list of things that are needed to prepare in order for you to have a successful film shoot - called our 'call list' or 'shooting checklist'. We all came together as a class to decide that these are the most important requirements: 

• Equipment - Camera, Tripod, Props, Portable Lights, Charger, Tape, Protective Equipment
• Notes - Script, Storyboard, Map of Location
• Crew - Actors, Director, Make-up Artists, First Aider, Camera Man, Costume, Refreshments
• Health and Safety -  First Aid Kit, Gaffotape 
• Other - Make-up 

Not all of these things will be vital for our own filming shoot, but most of them will be, so we will be using this 'call list' when we start on Saturday (12th) to ensure we have all the the right equipment and requirements we need for us to be successful. 

After the lesson, we all had to decide on 1 Individual Target and 1 Group Target:

Individual Target: To use different types of 'focussing' and 'lighting' effects in our scenes, to change the attention and mood of the audience

Group Target: To organise the 'call list' we're going to use and use the settings on the camera to our benefit. 

Music - 8/11/11

Thinking about the music and sound effects that we're going to play in the background of our scenes, me and Laura Jeffreson have come up with some ideas from Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/ - that we like at the moment and are considering using when we edit. We have decided to leave music and sound effects as one of our last things to research into as it's not needed for the actual filming, and can be considered when we get to the editting stages in about 3 weeks time.


Here is a picture of us talking about our music ideas via Facebook:

This shows that we have both completed the task, and gone away individually and found some different pieces of music we like, and then came back together to talk about them and choose as a group decision.



And these are the possible ones that we like and are looking to use:



And some songs that we might use the backing tracks or clips out of:






We thought that all of these pieces of music were appropriate to our genre of horror/thriller, which the music is extremely important to, so we need to focus on what music will produce the right image and effect on the audience that we want. As we are going to be using youtube for our sound effects and music, when we come to a final decision of what we are using, we are going to have to contact the people who's videos and sounds they're and make sure we are able to use them with the respect of the people.

WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?
Musics one of the most important conventions within a horror/thriller film, so we need to pick just the right background track or sound effects in order to send out the right message and create the right effect on our target audience. We have both completed it individually, and as a group, so that we can share our own views on music and both come to a mutual decision together.

Props - 8/11/11

There are a few different types of props that we need to use in order to forfill we want to create in our film. These include: the first shown letters that our main character is going to rip up in the first scene (these must clearly show the date 2001 and be relevant to the storyline) and the weapons that is going to be shown before the main character begins murdering everyone (this includes a hammer, a broom, several knives and sharp knife-like items, and a screw driver). Of course, with the weapon props we will have to take Health and Safety procautions which I will talk about when I discuss each one, to make sure none of our actors, ourselves or the public are in danger.

THE LETTERS
These are actually very important to the storyline and the main characters background, and are going to be shown in the first shot that we actually make. These letters are going to be from 2 health organisations that we have made up, and the letters are going to include information regarding Steven Turner's (our main character) health. As him turning insane and brutally killing everyone is basically what the entire film is about, his mental health was an important issue to raise and we needed to make sure that the audience was aware of how mentally ill he is, and how much of in-denial his is about it. We have done this to make the background of this character easier to understand and emotionally connect with for the audience.
Another point that is going to be on the letters, which is also important to the opening of the film, is the date which is going to be slightly bigger and bolder than the rest of the writing, and have more focus on, so that the audience understands this is in the past and know it's a back story.
Here are the letter props we are going to be filming in our first few scenes:

The basic idea of both of the letters are that they're from (made up) health organisations - St Charles Hospice and Tulip Health Group, and are letters explaining the need for Steven Turner (our main character) to attend their sessions, and for him to re-book another appointment for a health class, after missing his last one. The audience won't be able to read these letters, but the main information they'll be able to interpret from them is the title (the background of what the letter might be about) and the date (which is vital to the  whole setting in the past). We tried to make the props as realistic as we could and fit well with our plot and character.



As well as the letters, we are also going to be using some pieces of gardening and DIY equipment that we found in our sheds, and would be good as weapons for our main character.

Here are the pictures I have taken of some of them:

A screwdriver

A sharp item

A set of knives

A hammer

A broom

These are all some of the props we will be using in our scenes, and due to the fact some of them are quite heavy, sharp and dangerous (as I managed to even cut myself just taking a picture of the knives!), we will obviously have to make sure we prepare and set up the sharp items first and plan what we are going to do carefully and safely making sure no-one is hurt. As well as the knife set, we're going to be using Laura's knife sharpener set which is at her house, and is going to be key for the sound effect of it. It's important that we use sharp, dangerous types of equipment for our weapons, because we want it to reflect the real horror and gore aspects of our film, to scare the audience and to show the madness of the main character.

WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?It was important for us to take pictures and work out what individual prop we are going to need for filming, so that we are organised and have thought about everything.