Contents for FLICK

Double page spread interview

I spent possibly far too long on the cog design (1 hr approx.) as I though it fit in with the theme of our video, cogs can be associated with ticking and time, and most importantly with the brain and how it works. I presumed if in real life Paige would be a Zooey Deschanel kind of person, as she is cast in a Fox searchlight film and is an up and coming actress.

Improvments

After the presentation of our first cut, it became clear to me the quality of our work was not up to standard and definitely not up to par with the rest of the class, however unsettling this was that we had a lot of work to do, I feel like it gave us perspective and a wiser knowledge of what to do next, and of course we had feed back to dwell on as well. I also felt Dan agreed with this and as a team we have seen the following corrections need to be made: 

• Much more context into the film and giving more depth and reason into each shot. We found on watching everyone’s reactions and reading their feedback, they were just confused and couldn't follow the story line. For example the representation of the static and the meaning behind it wasn't put across, and I think the biggest thing I have taken away from the presentation is that you can just expect people to accurately grasp the concept of your ideas, you have to show them pretty much in layman’s terms for your point to be put across. 
• Our music choice was poor, which we knew anyway, but everyone else agreed, and Dan also pointed out it looked like a music video more than a film opening, so we have scrapped the Amanda Seyfreid song, and are unsure of what to do next, as I think we should carry on the pursuit for a track but Dan thinks we should scrap the music and go for ambient sound, which I do think is an option but I feel when there is dialogue and sound effects added the music will seem more in place. 
• The church shots were shit, nothing more can be said on the matter the shots need to be scrapped and a new idea must be made to fill the time. 
• There was one shot were the shot was shaken which needs to be cut short and the static times were not even in timing, showing we should possibly revise the editing to make it pristine. 
• The titles and the bar sequence was good and the audience said they though it looked professional and was a good idea/way of doing it. 
• Mrs Allison pointed out a few tweaks such as the 'starring Paige Law' title, she said we should possibly hold it back and use it when you first see her face. 

First cut

Filming

Today me and Paige went out filming. It had flooded again unfortunately so we improvised and did the shots we could plus adding a few which weren't planned for or in the animatic, which was suspected anyway. We however didn't get as much as I wanted done, as Paige fell and got soaking wet, which meant we had to go home early as she would have probably froze to death. There is one shot I would like to do soon however, and it would be taking advantage on the flood. Even though I would very much like one I sadly don't own a Steadicam and can't get hold of one, nevertheless my Dad told me about a technique the used in 'The Living Dead' as it was a low budget film to strap the camera down to a board of wood and get two people to run at even paces holding either side, thus giving the smoothness a Steadicam would, using this technique along with the flooding I would like to create a quite harrowing shot of a speedy close up to Red. Which I hope to do sometime in the near future, with the help of my Dad.

DVD Case

Using the Quotes from Dan's version of the DVD case and inspiration from the Sin City case I have completed our DVD case. I chose Sin City because it has been an influence over our video with it's use of editing style. It picks out select colors and makes them brighter or exclusively the only color in the shot. I like this because it's not unlike what we hope to achieve by isolating the red color in some shots. I also added a quote from Rotten Tomatoes as I think they would be interested in our sort of film, and would be interested to review it. I also added a new tagline 'What would you do if the Darkness rejected you?' as I think it's more appropriate than the last, however there is a slight issue as the font we are currently using (28 Days Later) doesn't have a question mark, so I will be making one to suit the font at some point.


I have made a gif instead of a jpeg as the DVD case would be holographic as I think this makes it appear more interesting and would attract people to pick up the DVD, but also as I think it suits the genre of our film more. I tried to stick to a strictly Black, White and Red color scheme, only disobeying that for the 18 certificate. I put my own name above the title as I am the director and added the Terra Somnia logo right by the title as they would have funded the film.

Movie magazine

I have made a fake magazine called Flick, and used Red on the front page. I've aimed the TA at late teens early 20's film addicts, examples of how I have shown this would be the color scheme, the Blackberry bar code. The use of the new Gore Verbinski film The Lone Ranger, and adding a web address on the bottom. Also I have made the title to surreptitiously look a little ruder than 'Flick' which I hope will also attract younger readers.

Developments

Today me and Dan focused on editing, we were told our film producers Fox Searchlight were hogging to much air time, so we had to cut down the clip from the admittedly long 25 seconds. We also sorted out some of the sound track and added in the static we needed to make the film more effective. Today's work was mostly tweaks on the project as we had no new clips to use and edit. Also Dan commented on how the music we chose doesn't work with the video, and I couldn't help but agree, so over time this will be changed as well, possibly to a track without words, so I don't have to listen to Dan singing the song all lesson every lesson. After the lesson today, I then looked in to more influences on our production which I spoke about in a post earlier today, and I made the film poster we would use, however left it without a release date, following a dispute in class about when that should be. I also looked up further music choices and possible shot ideas.

Influences

Some of the influences over our opening have helped change the way we have progressed our idea. For example Miss Allison showed us the opening of Arlington road which we thought was a good reference, as some of the effects in Arlington Road, uses negative and inverted shots and effects to give a more eerie and creepy feel, we wanted to help use these techniques to improve our video, however we did feel that these effect weren't in keeping with the rest of our video so instead we used the idea of giving a strange editing feel to our video, so Dan used gamma correction to the video to slightly distort the video, and it solved our problem of the shots being too dark as it took down the brightness and emphasized the dark.

The influence of True Blood came about as I am a big fan of the show and so have seen the opening a lot of times over, and it immediately came to mind as the flashes of random shots and complementary music gives an offsetting feeling of anticipation and it soon because quite iconic after the show was first aired, we used this as an influence as the shots aren't only haphazard but quite ghastly and give a bona fide sense of shock.

American Horror Story (Season 1 / Season 2)was an influence as again it is one of my favorite shows, and I think its opening is very inspiring, and influential. The chaotic shots which flicker and jump around I thought would be brilliant to use as an influence as they really instigate a shock factor with the fast moving cuts and the controversial shots.

However what first made me come up with the idea for the Plot of Red was the song CYMK –James Blake which is why at first I was insisted we had to find a way to use it in our opening despite the very restricting copyright rules. As I originally fit the plot around the lyrics,
‘Look I found her,
Red Coat,
Look I found her.’
Perfect for Little Red Riding Hood with reference to the Red Coat, and look I found her as if she is being tracked down and is in hiding.

Film Poster

                                   Here is a mock up film poster I have made.

Clip from the opening

Developments

        These are some shots were though would be good for making film posters from.

Filming Troubles

Over the weekend, we unfortunately did not do any filming due to poor weather. We intend to film a few more shots during the week in order to fill in the gaps in our production work.

Terra Somnia

After reviewing our film opening, and chosen existing film producers, Fox Searchlight we decided to revise the logo and way the Title was presented. So today I remade the title, logo, and made a short clip which will go at the beginning of our opening.

Development notes

Terra Somnia

After Thursday's lesson we came up with our Film Company's name and I designed its logo, 'Terra Somnia' is Latin for 'Land of Dreams'. We thought that this rather unusual name would reflect our company's unusual nature in relation to the type of films that it would produce. 

Possible Music changes

As regards to music in our opening, following a discussion today, we all felt we had come to the conclusion of using Sam the Sham, just because it seemed to fit well with what we were doing, and it was more of a quick fix, so we have been exploring other music options, so me turned out to be copyrighted and some are not and we feel could be good to use.
Links (Red=copyrighted/Green=Possible tracks):

Chris Rea

Jamie Woon - Wayfaring Stranger (Burial Remix)

Fever Ray - The Wolf

Olafur Arnalds

Eerie'

Sorrow'
I think if the incredibly annoying and restricting rules on copyright weren't stopping us from using the music we wanted, I would have gone for either CYMK - James Blake as it's the music I envisaged when I came up with the idea for Red, or I would have used Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, as the scene in which it was used in, in London To Brighton really inspired me and I thought it worked really well then and would work really well if we were able to use it in our video. Going on the same concept of the London the Brighton scene, if there were no copyright rules I would have also considered using Bond's Big Love Adagio, as I am a big fan of Bond and their versions of classics, and I again think especially the intro of the song would work with our video, to give it a more eerie feel. I would also have loved to have used Agnes Obel - Riverside (Lulu Rouge Remix) as I am again a big fan of the song and the two artists, I feel being 'intune' and interested in the piece of music it's self really helps with making a piece of work more personal and original.
My personal favorite choice of alternative song is Amanda Seyfried's version of Lil' Red Riding Hood, the Sam the Sham's original, because it still fits with the idea, and it's still eerie, but it suits the video better, and it's less comical then the original (no offence Sam). The song is also free from copyright.

Developments/set backs

Over our filming over last two days we have encountered a few problems such as weather conditions, which helped and hindered us at times such as in this shot:

The wind made the scene very atmospheric and we used it to our advantage, however even when trying to use the tripod the wind made having a steady shot very difficult. There is also a shot we're trying to make which we needed a duplicate Red Riding hood which we originally made from a stick and crash helmet so we are changing our design as the body was to thin with just the stick, so we decided to make like a crucifix like figure to add more padding and make it more convincing.

Finally in possession of our Red Hood, Tailor made courtesy of Mum.

Effects

The effects we are planning to use are:

• An overlay of Red over the Wolf to show the two different personalities. 
• A static effect to show the change in personalities between Red and Wolf.

Developments

We have to decided to add the hint of supernatural, such as things falling without being touched, so they look as if the are falling on their own, one way we were planning to show this was going to be like the scene in Paranormal activity. 
And we're planning to add a shot of a wicker basket falling of a banister buy it's self. These shots are not to make the watcher believe there is elements of ghost's and spirits in the opening, but to make Red's unstable state of mind clearer to the audience and to make the whole opening more eerie and haunting.

Example titles

These are two of the possible title we could use. They will obviously be in video form and we haven't decided whether to use this font or not, but the gif's just show what they'll be like. If we use the puddle one we were planning to have Red running through the puddle which would link to the video, and the Tree one would be a stop frame of the moon going over the tree which at the beginning of the shot would pan up from Red running past, I have an App which would make the stop frame easy to do. 


Example 1:

Example 2:

Developments

In this location we were planning to have Red outside the church looking innocent and then having a static effect and switching to the more run down church to shown Red's state of mind, and give the video an eerie effect.

In this shot we were planning to throw Reds hood from the window were you can see me standing, and put it in slow motion, which would look very effective.

More Locations

Developments

In our group the role are so:
Tom Hurst:
Dan Faint: Editing and Foley
Amber Law: Creative and Head Director,Camerawork and Sound [wo] man

11th of November: Going to Amber’s house for location scouting, and practice filming as well as planning

18th of November: Idea developments and prop and costume gathering

22nd-25th of November: Filming of outdoor and daylight shots, and sound developments
Shots of the wicker basket dropping
Shots of Red in the forest
Shots of Red running
Moon title shot (in puddle?)

2nd of December: Dark/indoor shots filmed.
Inside grubby horrible church, and outside nice pretty church
All outside dark shots
Moon title shot (in puddle?)

Fonts

Possible Fonts for our Title

Possible locations for filming

                       These are a few of the possible locations for our film opening.

Developments

For our Film opening we are taking influences from:

The opening of Arlington Road
The opening of True Blood
The opening of American Horror Story
Little Red Riding Hood (obviously)

We plan to film in location near to my house in Wadesmill, which is mostly secluded fields which is perfect for the scenes of Red's escape. We are also planning to shoot clips of red packing the wicker basket which we just need a black background for so it can really be done anywhere. We found two songs that fitted in with what we were planning to do. One is James Blake - CMYK and the other is Sam the Sham and the pharaohs - Little Red Riding Hood. However The Blake song was copyrighted so the plan for now is to use the other song, as we think the slower music will work better with the fast editing to make it more eerie.

Thing to consider:

Special effects
Sound effects
Fake blood?
Where to get a Red Hood
Fake wolf fur?
Other possible props

Links
James Blake
Sam the Sham
Arlington Road
True Blood
American Horror Story

Animatic

Story Board

Film treatment

Group: Me, Daniel Faint, Tom Hurst

Our idea is to play on The Little Red Riding Hood tale. However Red hasn’t exactly had the easiest child hood, she was abused by her grandmother who she lived with because her parents died when she was young though Red struggled to cope, and learn more about their fate no one ever found out hove they died, and so she ran away every young and lived in the woods. She adapted herself to outdoor life very much like the wolf’s around her. A life growing up in the woods, made Red a very smart and cunning but very disturbed child, in her teenage years she developed schizophrenia, one side of her persona she is Red and the other she is the wolf. However she doesn’t know when or where she’s going to transform. She fears herself, as the wolf has incredible power, with the ability to rip people apart. One day she wakes up in the woods covered in blood and she realized soothing terrible must have happened, so she goes in search of clues and finds she has brutally murdered her abusive Grandmother and in her escape a woodsman leaving a terrorizing scene of massacre, she is now on the run from the police and herself. Our tagline will be Who knows what foul monster dwells within the mind and the film name would simply be Red. Some of the scenes we plan to have in our opening would be Red running through the woods, and packing her wicker basket, plus the moon rising.

Film Opening Sequence Analysis

Lord of war – Life of a bullet


First shot: The main actors name is dead centre of the frame, in white writing making it stand out more compared to the dark and gloomy background, all the shots inside the factory have a blue tinge which could be to show sadness and depression and blue is the colour that represents this most. There is also only one person in this shot; however he is off centre which is implying he and all other people are unimportant in this title sequence. There is a red light in the top centre of the image, this could be representing danger however it is not obvious when you first look at the show which could imply hidden danger and therefore a twist somewhere in the film.

Second Shot: There isn't too much to analyse in this shot, we still don’t know we are the eyes of the bullet, however we can see the shot is very dark with could be telling us it’s a dark story.

Third shot: Now we see a low angle shot looking up at the bullet ahead of us, making it seem larger than it is and more powerful that before. There is also more colour in this shot than the last and a lot more light that glistens off of the bullets drawing your eye to them.

Fourth shot: Again in this shot there is an actor’s name in whit to make it stand out more, however this time the shot is lighter still. There are two people in this shot the one closest you can’t see his head and the other far away and out of focus, again telling us people aren't the main focus of the scene.

Fifth shot: In this shot we finally realise we aren't just following a conveyer belt, but we are actually the bullet, which builds tension as, as well all know bullets don't exactly live happy lives. Most of the frame is obscured by the man’s fingers showing us only his expression, which looks distant and unemotional, hinting at possible later characters in the film. There is also chiaroscuro lighting on his face showing sides of evil and good/dark and light.

Sixth shot: Here we are looking down on the rest of the belt, and the people who are dimly lit to once more reassure us they aren't the main focus. There is still the muted blue lighting to show the sadness of the film and the depression of a bullets life.

Seventh shot: This shot we see a soldier’s face which is yet again blank and emotionless, we see the weather behind him is dreary and gloomy, adding to the atmosphere if the scene, the boat behind him tells us the bullet is about to be travelled, and the size and colour of the boat tells us the amount of authority and significance the characters and journey has.

Eighth shot: In this shot we see the weather and background has changed to be much sunnier and the boats have also changed to look a lot less like the owners have influence or control. We can also tell there has been a journey as the ethnicity and attire of the people in the shot has changed they therefore also look less like they have less authority and power. We can see they are armed unlike the other men in the previous shot showing there is more danger here.

Ninth shot: This shot has far more impact than any of the others, for the first time in the sequence the human is the main focus and instead of being emotionless and cold, we can see pain and fear in their face, giving the shot far more impact than any of the others, the person is also a child which pull yet more heart strings, and adding to the innocents of them. We can also see that the bullet is in the centre of the image and instead of being right on top of it we are further back, to be able to show us the shot but also to show the speed and supremacy of the bullet.

Evaluation of the Preliminary Exercise

Evaluation of the Preliminary Exercise

I think our production went well, I think the editing was the best part as there were issues with sound and camera work, such as the point of view shot when Max opens the door has no sound, I’m not quite sure why as it’s just the way it turned out on the editing software. There was also one issue on the camera work as one of the shots wasn't at eyeline which we should have considered when filming. Now I look back at the filming I realized we should have thought throughout camera angles a bit more as they were quite odd and nontraditional  Also the shot of the clock was rather random, especially due to its length. Overall I would place our video somewhere between intermediate and basic as it think the editing and sound was intermediate but the camerawork was basic.

Preliminary Exercise final cut

Preliminary Exercise

My group: Max Allum, Matt Elsom, Me, Cristi MacFarlane, Tom Hurst
Where and when: Around the media room
Equipment: Canon Legria camcorder, Adobe Premiere editing software
Skills we were practising: Match on action, shot reverse shot.
How it went: Well - ish

Yesterday we started work on our Preliminary exercise, out storyline is Max a stripper, being interviewed by Tom, the posh pimp, a somewhat slightly untraditional school plot line. We chose to film in the Media room as it was left empty and as it’s tucked out of the way it meant it was quite for us to work in. We used a Canon Legria camcorder to film; Matt did most of the shots on the tripod except for the odd few which were POV shots so we decided to hand hold the camera instead. After filming we then split into two groups, me and Max, then Tom and Matt, as Cristi wasn't there at the time she'll join me and Max when she gets back. Max and I took it in turns to edit the clip; the both of us are new to the software so we learn a few new techniques. Billy came over and helped teach us how to cut a clip where we wanted without having to fiddle around by dragging and clicking and cutting. We didn't find it too difficult to do match on action however that was one spot me and Max found we had a continuity error we hadn't even noticed before someone else pointed it out. The only real issue we had was in the filming department when we couldn't take some of the shots seriously and just burst out laughing in the background every time. Other than that I think it all went well, however it still needs to be finished and it could turn out terribly. Touch wood it won’t.