Filming

Filming went pretty smoothly, with no problems really arising allowing us to flow through it quickly. It was done over the course of about 3-4 Weeks taking place at around 7/8-10+ O'Clock. The issue we have noticed though is that we haven't included an estalbishing shot. However, this will only take a quick session to get completed so it's no real problem. We plan to get this done ASAP, maybe even later on today (25/03/11). since we have whent back to location, and reshot some scenes that needed retouching; also taking some more shot for example, filming heather walking to the door. we reshot this scene from different angles so that we can split up the first person shots.

 In our rough cut which we have put together, we've noticed an issue with one of the shots. Unfortunatly, in one of the shots of Heather (Dead character), you can see her take a breath. It's only minor and not too noticeable, however it is an annoyance. We don't have time to correct this now so we've got to stick with it.



Filming Location (In day light)



Over the course of our filming, we encounted that things were different to how we had planned they would go. Whilst it still went fine, it was challenging. We experimented with many different shots and, in the end, changed quite a few of the shots on our storyboard.

We had to improvise for some of the shots, at some point liam had to lay down and shoot without the tripod to get the right angle which the tripod wouldn't allow. Quite a few shots were challenging, for example, the panning was more difficult than Liam and myself thought, when the shot recuired us to pan both right and down, trying to keep the pace of the character whilst also framing another thing of interest in the shot.

Also, the cameras metering system could not be controlled manual whilst filming, so we experienced some lighting problems. In one of the shots, where the car is started, when the headlights come on the camera auto-adjusts to meter for the bright point of light, which darkened everything else in the shot. Thankfully, however, it wasn't really a problem because we felt that the effect was pretty cool and suited the dark, sinister feel of the film. Another issue with the camera, was that in some shots there appears to be large black bars scrolling down across the shot. I think this was due to metering issues aswell, and unfortutantly, it can't fix it now.

We did try to pre-plan the lighting, where liam, Scott and myself made a visit to olympus house (Where we filmed) to check out the lighting and to find out, based on the lighting, how we would shoot. The large flood light above the main entrance to the building provided excelent lighting which was very helpful. However, it did turn off sometimes and since we had no control of this we had to pause/cancel filming sometimes.



Running through the storyboard with the DV



We filming using Liams Nikon D90 SLR but one of the shots were using my iPod. The advantage of using Liam's camera over the DV Cameras provided by the school was that we could film in higher quality and resolution. Also, the ability to change lenses helped. For most of it, we used a 50mm Prime F/1.8 lenses; this allowed us to take good advantage of focus and depth of field. However, the D90, is a photographic camera mainly, with just the side option to record, so unfortuatnly the settings were limited in video mode. We filmed on the standard video mode with the ISO set to 400-600.

Since none of us hold a lisence yet to drive, in the shot where we had to car speeding off we had to use a 'stunt double'. We filmed Connor (Protanganist) climbing into the car, then switched the shot to a different angle where we switched him with his Dad (The 'stunt double'). This allowed us to film the shot of the car speeding off.

Overall, we're happy with the production we have compiled. Here is a link to our rough edit;

Police meeting

Liam and myself met with sergeant Coleson, a member of the police the police this was ask for permistion to use a decretive, training sword. it was also to ensure that we would be allowed to film out in public with a realistic looking weapon. After the sargent inspected the weapon, we went over the offensive weapon act. this included such things as determining the length, sharpness and most important of all the intentions of the weapon. 

This video is a debrief of the meeting;

Informant

This post is just to say that throughout the past moths the group and myself have been working on the project, this has resulted in myself not posting in a while. however in this time frame we have done a lot of work that we shall be sharing with you shortly. for example we have:

• had a meeting with the Werrington police
• selected our set
• check the lighting
• organized everyone
• over came many problems
• filmed our movie
• edited our clips together
• and discussed many ideas for our title sequence

I will post more entries over the coming weeks where i will go in to more detail about the above.

Health and Saftey

we have had to consider our heath and safety for our project, this because we are using realistic weapons in a public place. we have considered members of the public being scared or worried about the goings on in our horror (e.g. the kill scene). to combat this problem we will have a member of crew,l wearing a high visibility jacket with a dedicated phone line on the back (a mobile number, where they can call for a brief description of what we are doing); along with that the in tire crew will be wearing a high visibility jackets that say crew on the back. we will also ask Scott if he will over see our shooting as a responsible adult. we may also consider having a trained first aider on set.

we have also got in contact with the local police dept. and are awaiting for a response to our phone call to set up a recorded meeting to explain our project and our intentions. we have also written a letter to inform them of our goings on. this is shown below

9^th December 2010

To Whom It May Concern

I am writing to inform you that we will be shooting a horror film sequence for our AS Media Studies Project.  This will include the use of realistic looking weapons (e.g. knife). This will be shot around dusk/ night near Olympus house. We will inform you of the dates nearer the time of shooting this. We will also inform Olympus House of these events.

This is part of our Media Studies course and it involves filming an opening scene for our chosen genre. We have selected the Horror genre. We have planned out our script and costumes for this over the last few weeks. All members of our group will be wearing high visibility jackets during filming.  Group members include: Connor Page, Francesca Williams, Ryan Newson and Liam Oliver. Also Sophie Stokes will be involved as an actress on this day.

We will have a dedicated help line displayed around the set where any member of the public can call to be informed of the current events in place.  A risk assessment will be carried out prior filming.  We kindly request your Consent to these events; if you have any queries please contact Connor Page on  07807 070458 or contact Roberto DeVita at Ken Stimpson Community School.

Yours sincerely

StandHardProductions                      R De Vita

                                                          Media Studies Teacher (KSCS)

Analysing 'The life of a bullet' Lord of War intro.

I've chosen to do a quick analysis of this as we plan to attempt to do a POV (point of veiw) shot of a weapon in our project.

The POV of the bullet, adds more drama into the images, and involves the audience with the action more, making them feel like its them in the images place. This added depth. Putting this into an intro sequence is a very good way to create enigma and draw the audience in making them wanting to watch more.

In 'Lord of War', we follow the life of a bullet, from production, to shipping, to usage. The usage of it, shows it contact with someones head, kiling them instantly. The end of the bullets life, and the persons. We watch the bullets whole life, beginning to end and, essentially, how it was 'born' just to kill. This could, in some way, relate to the soldiers, or insurgents?

Following the life of just one single bullet, and that being the one and only bullet to contact with, and kill the person could relate to showing how much difference just one person/thing can make. Possibly, also, just how much destruction/devestation one person/thing can cause.

Storyboard referb and Shooting Script

Ryan and myself met up on Monday the 6th, this was to turn the ruff draft of our storyboard {image to be added} into a finalized and presentable format. We did this by: first of all reprinting the templates on A3 paper, then we went over the draft shot by shot. Ryan then drew out the shots as they were described and shown; we strongly thought about shading to show the lighting techniques. 
 {image to be added}
Once we we happy with how it looked we showed it to our group, after getting the go ahead, we handed it over to liam. he then turned this storyboard into the shooting script, this will then be used whilst filming.
{image to be added}

Codes and Conventions of horror.

This type of genre strives to educe fear and apprehension from their viewers by colliding supernatural into reality situations. Everything a normal society values is systematically destroyed throughout the film. It often can be completely paranormal without any reality whatsoever and are based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre. They can also incorporate elements of other genres such as science fiction (sci-fi), fantasy, black comedies or thriller. Modernized horrors usually contain graphic violence or bloody gore. Horror films differentiate due to the years and so it is much harder to compare or group them largely and so contrasts between them become very clear.

  o Preliminary introduction into ordinary lifestyle
o Type of bizarre murder/death – killer maybe known or unknown
o Credits follow horror theme – creepy font, title movement, image eg pumpkin, weapon, etc
o Main characters introduced – young/ youthful
o Teenage kids – easy target also vulnerable – home alone
o Teenagers usually a couple – football jock boyfriend and cheerleader blonde bimbo girlfriend.
o Mysterious phone calls – dubbed sinister voice “Who’s There…?”
o Family ties broken
o Sisters killed by brothers e.g: Halloween
o Sometimes unsuccessful acts of heroism
o Victim unprotected
o Superhuman killer – doesn’t die successfully = sequels

-Source; http://smay-fuller-suttonmediaas.blogspot.com/2008/12/codes-and-conventions-of-horror-film.html