Crew Meetings
Throughout the project our group will be having a number of crew meetings to discuss what is going on throughout the project and also to keep track of what everyone is doing.
13th of September 2016 - Photographing Crew Profiles
Today during our first meeting we decided to pick out what each person in the group would specialises in, we decided to pick these based on everyone's strong points - Jamie being good at organising everyone, Aimee being good with writing and explaining herself, Harrison being good with a camera and Kian knowing how to produce videos. Once we had decided everyone's roles we then took to taking our crew profiles - it was not only something we needed to do but it was also good practice with the camera and tripod. It allowed us as a group to take turn in photographing each other and getting to grips with the camera.
Here are some images from this meeting - it shows us using the camera and taking Kian's crew profile shots. Also during this meeting we discussed names for our media company - we had a few ideas including:
- Slash Studios
- After-Death Films
- 3 x 6 Fims
- Terror Labs
- Beyond Studios
We decided on Everlasting Studios as we thought Beyond Studios was too obvious so we looked up other words and came aross Everlasting. We thought the name ran smoothly and was something that would stick.
21st of September 2016 - Test footage
Today we decided to take some test footage - we designed a few storyboard each before going out and filming the shots - we had roughly four ideas in which we wanted to create and all had a go at filming so once again we got more experience before filming our actual trailer. We used a Canon camera which is what we will be using for our actual trailer along with a Nikon and Go-Pro.
26th of September 2016 - Test footage editing session
Today, the lads of the team decided to put their heads together to edit the video. Kian did not have much experience with Sony Vegas, but Jamie had some prior knowledge and a basic understanding of the programme so he helped Kian if he needed any guidance. Harrison and other classmates viewed the video as it was being edited and gave constructive criticism such as finding a"less cartoony" cracked glass png for the video overlay. Aimee organised the website in the meantime and uploaded her own test footage. Kian began to settle into an editing role and achieve what was story boarded beforehand. It was a productive 2 hour session, we're very pleased with how everything is progressing.
10th of October 2016 - Progress Update
We recorded this in lesson time in an empty classroom. Jamie edited this video at home. We have our first crew meeting captured in video format and give a brief update on our progress 2 months into the coursework, including the survey, test footage and more.
12th of October 2016
We created an outline in which we can make our story boards on. Aimee created this template leaving us space to draw an illustration as well as write any camera movements and shots we wanted to be on that camera shot. Harrison and Jamie are good at art and drawing so we decided they will probably be best at drawing the diagrams whereas Aimee and Kian decided to look at camera shots and angles for the different shots. Aimee and Kian explained to Jamie and Harrison some of their visions/ideas so that they could be drawn up on a storyboard. We all came up with camera shots which we think will suit our story and also create an atmosphere to our trailer.
18th of October 2016
Aimee and Kian started looking at a costume for our main character – focusing on a mask. We went to hobby-craft and bought two cardboard mask in which we could design and create ourselves. We came up with the idea of a newspaper mask with different murder headlines. Harrison and Jamie continued to create some storyboards of shots in which we want to include within our trailer.
19th of October 2016
Today we decided to design and create our first mask – this mask was a test run to see if it would work. Kian printed off loads of different murder and creepy newspaper headlines which were from all different years. We then used glue to stick them all over the mask – we ripped the paper so it looked torn and old. After creating this mask we also realized making one out of real newspaper would look more effective. Ideally older newspapers, but finding old newspapers with disturbing/dark headlines may prove a challenge as British newspapers are notorious for stupid and creative headlines.
1st of November 2016 - Progress Update
Today we all worked on out final treatment and characters we wanted to be in the trailer – we worked on the synopsis and what was going to happen within the trailer. We wanted to create enigma within the trailer so the audience would be on edge and curious to know what is going on and what is going to happen. We also didn’t want to reveal too much about the main character during our trailer but we wanted the audience to be aware of the fact he’s going mad. By the end of this session we had the final treatment decided and starting thinking of people who would fill the roles of our characters.
We proceeded to record a crew meeting to document our progress since half term.
15th of November 2016
Today we decided to record some test footage and achieve some ideas we had, all while getting more and more used to using the camera. This test footage will obviously be reshot under conditions appropriate to the film with costume, lighting and characters but for now this was just to establish some ideas and see if they could come out in a satisfying way.
23rd of November 2016
Today we dedicated a whole lesson purely to planning poster designs for our horror film. We were able to come up with a pleasing variety of outcomes, and took inspiration from previous posters we analysed and the storyboards we had already made. We kept the themes/narrative of our film when designing the poster and made it a priority to establish that it is a horror film and can't be mistaken otherwise.
28th of November 2016
After taking inspiration from Quentin Tarantino and his car boot/trunk scenes from Pulp Fiction (which have notably been recreated in GTA V promotional artwork), we planned similar shots of the original killer opening/closing in his car trunk with a victim inside. We were able to capture test footage of this shot as well. From this, we learned of some errors and things to keep in mind when shooting the actual footage. The brightness and focus must be manual, the ISO levels
2nd of December 2016
FILMING
Today we went out as a group and did some filming. We decided to film the car scène which we were all really excited to film and we had a good idea of how to film it due to practicing the shots twice. We decided to film at Abergeldie Rd which was a really good location for this shoot. We parked under a large tree which has a lamp post near it creating an eerier and creepy location for the trailer to take place. We only used one actor for this as we wanted some footage of the original murderer (Billy was the actor). We took around 4-5 shots which we all thought were really effective and creepy. We also played around with the camera to figure out the best way to film and the most effective way of filming. We filmed at around 6PM meaning it was dark but the street was lit up by street lamps. Overall we were really pleased with the filming which we created and were pleased with how everything worked out.
9th of December 2016 - Progress Update
In this crew meeting, we presented and discussed our recent poster drafts. This video was edited somewhat differently than usual to show our poster drafts and the crew in the corner talking about them.
15th of December 2016 - Progress Update
This crew meeting was the last one we filmed before we broke up for the Christmas holidays. We broke down our progress so far, and what we hope to accomplish next. In the video, we mention our camera filters, inspiration from John Carpenter's Halloween, our storyboards and more.
9th of Jaanuary 2016 - Progress Update
Today we began creating weapons to use for our production. We used cardboard and sketched out designs, cut them out and layered more cardboard on them to make them thicker.
16th of January 2017
Crew Meeting & Filming
Today we aimed to get some test footage of our knife and check the quality of the silhouettes/lighting set up and update our progress with a crew meeting.
17th of January 2017
Filming
Today we had a double lesson so we chose to make the most of it and film our knife silhouette footage as well as footage of a hand silhouette sliding down slowly. Furthermore, we planned and attempted to record a scene involving a panicy victim struggling to open a door + a shot that pans left to right, tracking a killer's footsteps as he opens the bathroom door and walks over to the stall (this is hot from underneat the stall) This time we included filters to create some abstract, impactful shots.
23rd of January 2017
Filming
Today we tested out a storyboard idea Jamie and Harrison created. We encountered problems with the shots we achieved and have noted how to refine our filmmaking, this is detailed in our test footage page.
27th of January 2017
Filming
Today we went out to reshoot our trunk shots with Billy and take photographs for our poster/magazine cover
Jamie- inset gifs/pics from videos
31st of January 2017
Filming
Today we went out during our double lesson to record some shots at Danson Park.
06/02/2017
Trailer edited, 30 seconds so far
07/02/1017
Jamie used Sony Vegas Pro 13 at home to colour correct and add filters to the trailer so far. He presented it to the group who thought the colour correction worked in some shots but made some shots too dark, so we decided to cut out the ones that didn't work and replaced some shots with the improved colour corrected shots in the trailer
Font research & Editing Poster Drafts
Problem - had to find special characters on google to use on dafont
Filter scenes shown to group, effective on Billy scene and Kian walk, not effective on other segments.
Research into royalty free music for the trailer
Harrison also made a flash animation of our studio logo using Photoshop and Flash, which we can include in the trailer as a title shot and on our website.
08/02/1017- FILMING
Today, Harrison, Kian and Jamie filmed a contrazoom shot of the pig mask for the final trailer, as well as an upwards titlt shot of Billy that was inspired by a sequence in the Dark Knight trailer.
The group also researched more royalty free trailer music and found some viable contenders.
10/02/1017- Editing and Drafting
Harrison edited Trailer @ 1:10, encountered problems : media offline, had to restart and re edit
Scenes picked out for Jamie to edit/colour correct at home - Lightworks
Magazine drafting stage Kian - Photoshop
Aimee created promotional poster for the film - Photoshop
Jamie did website maintenance and looked up solutions for problems Harrison encountered on Lightworks, browsing forums
Reminder to Jamie from Jamie: post pictures of Harrison editing, media offline
pic of Aimee's poster, current mag draft
20/02/1017- Decided trailer music - agreed with group, research publishers, email them for liscensing, filtered footage added to trailer
21/02/1017- Filmed additional shots & photoshoot for film poster
Restarted editing as a result of Lightworks glitch preventing change
Updated poster draft
Emailed the music label to request permission
27/02/1017- Magazine Photoshoot
Began to write dialogue for trailer
Trailer Edit 2
28/02/1017- Editing Magazine on Photoshop, debating on which photo font of masthead
Recorded dialogue for trailer - Sian's line + humming, news reporter's lines, the police officer's line. We recorded these in a quiet room with no notieable background noise. The dialogue will make sure our narrative is clearly coneveyed and compliments the trailer
Had to record using camera as there was no microphone available in school. Jamie converted the video/.wav files at home using Sony Vegas by rendering them as mp3s and uploaded onto Google Drive for use next day
29/02/1017- Editing Magazine on Photoshop
Problems with audio having bvackground noise; Kian adjusted it in audacity
Harrison added the music and dialogue to the trailer
Jamie planned magazine titles/kickers/usp to implement onto the magazine
07/03/1017- Editing Magazine on Photoshop, finalising it with headlines, Unique Selling Point and Barcode.