Make up and Costume - Jake

Make up is key factor to recognising any vampire film. We intend to pale the face of the vampire, give him fangs and slightly darken his eyes. The vampire to attack the protagonist will be wearing a dark hoody which will be masking their face, however we shan't disclose the identity and will only show their mouth, leaving mystery and fear in the hearts of the audience. The protagonist will be wearing a white t shirt, which will help accentuate the blood stain. 

Lewis - Film outline planning

Today we started to decide the details of our film. This included deciding the amount of shots, shot length and the specific action in the shots. So far we have planned up to the end of the title section and the start of the actual scene.
We then discussed the importance of a storyboard and split our outline between our group to produce a storyboard.

Presentation feedback

PITCH

 

Jake - I think the pitch went quite well. We got across most, if not all, of our ideas for the story and our research and hopeful certificate. We should've planned out who speaks when and added some images onto the presentation to make it a bit more interesting, but overall, it went okay. 

 Lewis - In my opinion the pitch went very well. i fell that we manages to clearly get across the majority of the information a bought the film, however we were not as clear on some aspects like the opening credits as we could have been.

Jake Cornes Title Research 1

The opening reveals institutional information such as the actors, directors, producers, writers and that it is made by HBO. It is presented over images and videos of the south of america and vampire related imagery. We see children eating very juicy tomatoes(?) and a lot of references to christianity, and the audience can tell it's the south as some of the images are recognizable and the south is linked with christianity quite strongly. The children eating tomatoes looks like blood, vampires drink blood, ipso facto, the child looks like a vampire. It's a good example of how images can be used that don't directly relate to the genre but have some relevance to make a good intro. Problem is though, this is more suited for a television series then a movie as a movie would probably say more institutional information and would only be on once so perhaps would contain quite as many actors, as they would be left for the closing credits.

Media assesment piece review. Lewis

I do think that our finished work shows a good level of camera ability. All of our shots were steady and were not shaky or rough, this includes the pans that i feel are very smooth although they copuld be better. The framing of our shots was also quite good with most shots having appropriate cut off points, space above characters heads and walking room. however we did not appropriatly use the rule of thirds. We only applied this rule to about half the shots we should have and this makes it much less interesting to watch and hindered our composition.
The camera work was done well especially as our location turned out to be too thin. These limitations caused us to have to improvise with the long shots and side views. We did despite the limitations manage to fit in every shot type except eyeline match as it was not appropriate for our selected scene.
The major problem that we encountered was the exposure, we failed to take in to account the fact that once tanken off the camera the footage would become much darker. This made  our film consistantly too dark, making many shots hard to see and many details hard to notice.

I feel that overall the editing was done well. The shots go together well creating a good consistant and easy to follw film, there were no noticable jumps annd a natural flow of shots. Our main flaw on the editing side was our failiure to add transitions between shots, i feel that the use of fades and other transitions would have helped the changing of shot be less harsh and better overall looking. Our film did not suffer too much due to this however it wopuld have been an improvement. This failiure was caused by a organisational problem leading to less editing time than expected.

In our project we did use appropriate props and clothing, with our vampire having fake teeth and makeup to cause a pale look with blood around the mouth. However this work is undone due to the failiure to get a good exposure meaning that it is quite difficult to notice these features.
The location for our filming fit the genra nicely as a dark abandoned alley at night, however in terms of shooting it was not optimal due to beeing too small for our long shots from the side.

My role in the group was to do the main part of the filming and also some editing. I handled the camera most out of my group, i also contributed to the editing by cutting up shots helping to order them and fixing shots to match the origional piece. Me and my partner both did equal amounts of planning in aadvanced.
If we could re-shoot our film i would definitly correct the exposure problems and make sure our filming was bright enough as it is easy to darken a shot to the desired level but almost impossible to brighten it. I would also makesure we had enough time to fully finish the editing with time to watch through checking for faults.

For our final coursework i would be much more organised leaving plenty of room for unforseen error correction. This would give us the chance to fully check our film and get outside opinions, and even the chance to reshoot sections if nessercerry.

My assessment of the Assignment - Jake

I feel the movie went quite well. We got the correct shots and held them sufficiently. We used a variety of shots, though we could have had more. A few of the shots were too close but overall they were okay. All the shots flowed together thanks to the continuity editing. We sadly forgot to add the fades in the first few shots which does make it differ quite a bit from the original.

We had to change actor so the original actor search pictures aren't of the actor we used but we replicated the same clothing and make up, though the make up is quite hard to see in the light. The location was a bit too tight to get the long shots so we used another location which was close by.

I drew out the storyboard and did all the makeup. I also edited quite a lot of the film together. I filmed a little bit but not much as Lewis is better behind a camera than I am. If I were to make improvements, I would make sure to add the fades and the effect of the camera shaking. I would also have chosen a slightly larger location.

AS Assessment with Jake and Lewis

We feel that we did okay in this task. We could have chosen a brighter location as the lighting was a major issue, and there was not enough space for some shots. We feel that the continuity was done well but a lack of fades does make it appear jumpy. We didn't put in the fades due to lack of time that could've been overcome by better planning.

Continuity editing sheet

This sheet demonstrated the principles of continuity editing showing the ideas of the 180 degree rule and 30 degree rule and where the cameras must be positioned. it also introduced the principles of story-boarding a conversation with the shot reverse shot set up.

Jake recee scan

This information accompanied the recee shots of jakes location, it contains good clear information on the health risks and viability of this location.

Lewis recee scan

This is the information that accompanied my recee photos. it clearly states the usage and usability of the proposed site however it could be laid out more neatly.

Composition Exercise

We believe the film has bad exposure. It changes every shot, this was due to the natural lighting in the location being obscured. It also has occasional. We think it stuck with the 180 degree rule, however at one point it did break the 30 degree rule. Nevertheless, we think it has good shots and it fits together well. Also it stuck to our storyboard well. Some shots had to be altered due to the location.

Actor search!

Today we took pictures of a friend who does a bit of acting. The first picture is him normally, the second is him with a hoodie, vampire teeth and make up on. The second picture is how, if he is able to do it, he will look in the minute of film that we reproduce.

Recee 2

This is the second possible location to shoot our short film. these pictures were taken at a similar time to that whitch we would shoot our film. This location is only 5 miniuts away from a recharge and has plently of lighing while still maintaining a good level for horror.

Possible location.

I have been searching for possible locations and this seems like quite a good one. Also it's quite near my house so if we do have any battery related problems, we can just walk 30 seconds back and recharge. Here are some pictures of said place.

Continuity exercise

Today we did an exercise on continuity. In this exercise, we had to use the 180 degree rule, 30 degree rule, and the eye line match rule. Some of the shots were good but there were a few, like the master shot, that were cut too fast and also were under exposed. We learnt a lot about editing and how we could improve. Especially in the time between saying action and action begin with regards to the edit.

Coverage & Continuity

Today, me and Lewis learn all about Coverage and Continuity. We learnt about the 180 degree rule which is where the camera stays on one half of a filming circle. This helps the film flow continuously. We also learn about the 30 degree rule which is where if any shots are less then 30 degrees apart they to have been unintentional. Finally we learnt about Matching Eyeline which is where the actor looks off the shot and a close up of the item in focus appears.

Camera Excercise - Jake Cornes

I think we've framed most of them correctly. There are a few which could be improved. We have included the number of shots we planned. The pace is a bit jumpy at times and could be much improved upon. It could flow more fluently and we could have focused the shots more. It makes sense but doesn't flow as well as it could have.

The first camera exercise

We have framed the shots well, using a variety of different shots. Our video contains many shots high angle shots to low angle shots with a variety of close ups and mid shots. we have used a number of shots making this video more complex than a simple shot.
The video has good pace however it is difficult to capture a good atmosphere. Overall the video flows well however it does contain a jump that does not flow well.
The video could be improved by adding better flow and transitions, also we could have had better control over the background noise during the shooting, this would make it a more polished piece.

The Beginning

So it begins... Over the next few weeks we're going to be learning all about cameras! The correct shot types, how to maintain continuity, how to storyboard, and Genre conventions. At the end of this we'll be assessed by a 30/40 second recreation of a previous students horror film.