Wednesday 30 October 2013

Filming Diary #2 - Elliott

Wednesday 30th

Today was the day we could finally start filming after the disruption last time. We made sure to film on a clear day (the first one we got) so that we would be able to use natural light in the scene, if needed. (I can always make a shot look darker but it's never good to make it lighter)

Natural light looks pimp, yo

The first scene we decided to film was the interior beginning scenes (after the flashback ending) because it was possibly the most convenient, in terms of props needed, and because we started early (at around 12) it left the rest of the day to film some of the night scenes. Because we are using amateur actors, except for Matt who has some experience, filming in the order of the story also helped them put on a more convincing performance (I hope.)

Filming diary and rundown of 'dangers'


Tuesday 29 October 2013

Elliott's Epic Blog Headers


Like the Tibetan monks I am on a constant mission to better myself. while Monks shave their heads and sing Kung-Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas I choose to better myself with Tight Ass Blog Banners (and singing Kung-Fu Fighting.) As I've spent far too many hours making these things I've put up this post to chronicle the journey of that little bit at the top of the screen, from the shittest hype to the hypest shit.

The Original Gangsta - The first blog banner featured a boring name panel and low resolution photos cropped from our first group pic. Also subliminal spiral design. Nostalgic.

The Hat Trick - The photos got progressively weirder over the holidays and after deleting the crocodile we now have hats as well. Merry Christmas, yo.



The Dark Blog Rises -  Unfortunately I have now accidentally embedded the hats into the actual picture so no chance of getting rid of them for a while.

 The Gritty Reboot with some sweet effects captured as stills from Action Essentials 2.
The smoke assets and new name text came out great because of the way semi-transparent stuff can be edited in paint.net.
The Muzzle Flash - My first forray into prop making all for the sake of that one sweet shotgun picture. nice.
I've stuck in a muzzle flash and the title is screened on top of the gun to pull everything together.

The Frosted Flakes With the first day of filming comes the chance to eat Frosties in the name of cinema, we took the chance.

The Hype - Although it's a shame to see the amazing shotgun go, it's worth it to put the new photo center stage. I put out some new minimal titles and with some fancy rotoscoping gave the whole thing a 3D effect by putting some of the smoke and titles slightly behind the main pic AND I could finally get rid of the stupid hats.

Elliott Ridley

Sunday 27 October 2013

Filming Diary #1 - Elliott

Sunday 27th

Today is the first day we have scheduled to film our short film however, as is always expected, we have run into difficulties.
Hurricane 2K13 - we will rebuild!

Friday 25 October 2013

Main filming location - Elliott

(Location 1)

Leylands Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex

 Due to the state of my room the main danger is trip hazards. shit be trippin, literally.

no-one likes dubstep anymore and that makes me sad

Equipment - Elliott

I ordered the filming equipment from college on Friday and arranged for my driving instructor to pick me up from college so I could drive home instead of lugging the 2 tonne box onto the train at rush hour


(pictures to be added from phone)

The equipment we used:


  • 1 HD DSLR camera
  • 1 SD Video Camera (for BTS footage)
  • 2 backup camera batteries
  • 1 transfer lead
  • 1 SD card
  • Giant spotlights/ Heaters
  • 1 Charge lead
  • 2 Light tripods
  • 2 Metal diffusers
  • 1 Tripod (phone/camera tripod head)
  • 1 Smoke machine
  • 1 Giant metal case for all of the above

Thursday 24 October 2013

Location 2 - [Keelan]

(Location 2)
Royal George Court, London Road, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 8LN


- As the property is on the second floor there is a hazard of a person falling out of the window if it were open.

- There is a potential hazard here of the floor lamp being knocked over from cameramen of lighting.
- We have to mind the TV as it is balanced on its stand, therefore would be rather easy to knock over and damage.




After assessing the area, I have come to the conclusion that there is a low level of risk and potential hazards here. As with any household area there are standard things that must be checked such as the electrics. This would be checked to prevent any potential fires or electrical incidents.

A short video clip of the owner of the property giving me permission to use his premises for the purpose of filming.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Underwater test shots - Ziaul

These are 3 test shots of the underwater camera.




Depending on class discussions, this style (underwater) shots will not be a major part of our film but we want to add it to the film in some way i.e. when he washes his face because he consider it to be a good shot and quite cool. There might be problems with the amount of depth needed for this shot, as we need a good amount of depth to fit the persons head and the camera in. So the best place for this shot to be done is in a bath tub, this is what I did last year. Also I had a problem with my breathing because I found it uncomfortable and lost my breathe under the water quick. 

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Props - Detailed [Elliottt, Ziaul & Keelan]


Experimental Camera Shots - Keelan

To replicate the shots that I earlier posted of the first person perspective of the cards at the poker table I took a few shots of what will be the main characters hands with some cards in his hands.

 - Here we have used Depth of Field to focus in on the players hands and cards. This allows us to communicate to the audience that they should focus on the cards, being the main subject.

- This is a similar shot to the last, however this is from more of a low down point of view. In this shot the cards take up even more of the frame, taking even more attention off of the background and more attention to the cards.

VFX breakdown #2 Focus pull and Camera Flare - Elliott

I covered both of these effects in preparation for my AS film last year, but due to equipment constraints was never able to use them in the finished product.

      


An example of a 2-shot that would
benefit from a focus pul
This year I have a laptop and my preferred VFX software (AE) so I should be able to finally make use of these effects. The focus pull will be very useful for a variety of shots that we have planned, especially during the poker scene where I hope to use it to show reactions in a two-shot, which is much more dynamic than
the normal way of taking a separate shot for each character's reaction.

While a separate camera could be used to do focus pulls without VFX the hassle of carrying two cameras and trying to get both bits of footage to match means this is a much more efficient way to pull off the effect. Another bonus of this effect is it can be used to achieve very technical shots like dynamic (moving camera) focus pulls such as this example from Jurassic Park.
experiments with different stages of lens flare


You can see more detail on both effects, including how I made them, on these posts:
Camera Flare
Digital Focus Pull

Props - Elliott

Props in Narrative order of appearance

flashback scene
reflective sunglasses
broken reflective sunglasses
fake blood

beginning
calendar (nuns having fun)
sound activated lights
safe
cash
table football
drawer with suit-shirts
laptop
suit bag
sink
bottle of milk
tv remote
'racing post'
tv

walking round town
DSLR camera
dench watch
beeper car keys
red car
KA
metal case (use the redhead case?)
prop shotgun

at night - kebab shop
money
kebab
chair
armchair
plate
coffee table
'racing post'
iphone

poker scene
green table cover
chips/poker set
deck of cards
smoke machine?
cigars/cigarettes
lots of beer and beer bottles
dench watch
stalker photos (polaroid style?)
flick knife?

after-ending
smoke grenades?
prop shotgun
electrical equipment
table
reflective sunglasses
broken reflective sunglasses
fake blood

http://www.amazon.co.uk/eSecure-Large-Players-Holders-Foldable/dp/B008CZU6WW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381240417&sr=8-1&keywords=poker+table

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CQ-11-5g-Poker-Aluminium-buttons/dp/B000PK544M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381240665&sr=8-1&keywords=poker+chips

Music and soundtrack - Elliott

Non-Diegetic soundtrack is perhaps the most important aspect of sound editing, in terms of how it controls the aesthetics of a scene, and encompasses all form of music that is added to the product post-production.

For our short film we have an added complication that big-budget productions do not run into: having to avoid copyright in our music choice as we don't have money to spend on licensing fees.

This is the Lord of the Rings 100 piece orchestra - showing what soundtracks
multi-million pound productions have access to.
Unlike Lord of the Rings, which had a budget of £57 million (source), we also cannot afford to hire an orchestra (surprising, I know) which leaves me 3 main options for sourcing music:
  • Use music so old it does not fall under copyright law
  • Use Royalty-Free music
  • Record our own music specifically for this production
 
While there are undoubtedly some great songs that are old enough to avoid copyright, the main trouble is finding some in a style that fits with the themes of our short-film. One song that could work very well is, I believe, 18 with a bullet.

Using Royalty-Free music has it's own drawbacks in that it is normally of very substandard quality compared to normal music and using it could end up making the film sound completely unprofessional. To try and avoid this I hope to limit the amount of royalty free music to the sort of instrumental soundscapes that are (hopefully) of no noticeable quality drop

Recording our own music is another avenue to explore, whether it be with help from a friend of me and Ziaul who has a band or with my own, not so great, musical skills. The downside of using this method will be in the quality of the recording/mixing as we would obviously not have access to the inanely expensive equipment most recording studios use. One way I could get around this is by hiring a studio for the day such as this one in Brighton http://www.metwaystudios.co.uk/ however because of the amount of money I will have to spend on props I am reluctant to put down more cash for the project if I can avoid it.

Because of the drawbacks of all these methods I aim to go with hidden option 4 to source most of the music for this production:
This involves using the huge amount of unsigned potential of artists on the internet, especially YouTube. Because I have quite a large subscriber base on YouTube I hope to be able to get permission from smaller, but talented, artists to use their music for the film in return for promoting them to a larger audience. One limit of this is that most music artists that exist like this make only electronic style music which may cause trouble in finding the music that would fit our production.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Risk Assessment & Permissions - Keelan

Danger Sign
This week we are planning on doing our risk assessment. This will involve going to each location that we are going to use, taking pictures of the area as well as noting down any possible hazards.
We will then figure out how to correct any hazards or placing precautions in order to prevent injury to any of the cast.

In order to record in certain locations will we need to ask for permission from the property/land owners if it is okay to film there. We will most likely use video evidence to show this.

People whom we need to seek permission from:

Main Locations -

Elliott Ridley's House - We must ask his parents.

Keelan Webster's Other House - Parents need to be asked.

Other Locations -

Dry Cleaners - The Dry Cleaners owner/manager

William Hill - Branch Manager

BetFred - Branch Manager

Coral - Branch Manager

Buddys Pizza and Kebabs Shop - Shop Owner

Roads of Burgess Hill - No special permissions, however high visibility jackets must be worn by camera men and extra safety precautions must be in place.

Thursday 10 October 2013

Timed Animatic - Elliott


Storyboard drawn by me and Ziaul (I did the second half)
This Animatic shows the timing we will be using for every shot in the film, allowing us to work out exactly how close we will get to the 5 minute length that is set as the goal.

Animatic with Commentary (Part 2) - Elliott

Starting at roughly the 2:30 point in our short film this animatic shows the ideas we have for the end half of the story, including the return to the beginning of the cyclic narrative, shown this time from an unrestricted perspective.

From a technical perspective the end half has far more shots that are likely to need a high amount of planning and VFX editing, therefore resulting in complications. Hopefully planning out these shots in more detail (which I will try to do in later posts) will help stop any unforeseen problems. The shot that I can see causing the most trouble is the ending set piece (2:54 in the Animatic) with the camera tracking backwards through a house window.

Animatic with commentary by Ziaul Islam #part1



Wednesday 9 October 2013

Pre-Production Planning [Keelan]

Expanding on our idea

We have planned and decided on a synopsis for our short film. The film is going to be of a cyclical narrative. This means that our film will begin with the ending of the film.

Beginning - Our film begins at the end of the story. It starts with a view of a house, of which is on fire. It will be obvious to the viewer that there has been some sort of explosion in the house, and there will be fire coming out of the windows. As this would be very expensive and dangerous to execute, we'll do all of this on a piece of video editing software, such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe After Effects.
A man will then be seen stumbling out of the burning house, this will also include a 'flash bang' effect to communicate to the audience that the man is injured and disorientated. At this point in time questions will already be being asked by the audience on whom the man is and why is the house on fire.

As the man is stumbling he will stop and so will the camera. There will then be a POV shot from an unknown source whom will be standing directly in front of the man. As the camera focuses on the man he'll then get shot from the unknown character. As he falls to the floor, the camera will smoothly follow him to watch him until he dies, which the audience will know as his eyes will close.

Transition Between Beginning and Middle - As the man who has just died closes his eyes, we will use the video editing software to add an effect as if he were having a flashback. We then get a close up of the mans face, however this time the setting as changed. He's still in the same position however he is in bed. As he awakens he'll sit up very abruptly, and just as the camera smoothly followed him down, it will smoothly follow him up. Text will also most likely be placed on top of the frame stating something along the lines of "2 days earlier", this is to add context.

Middle -  We are now invited into the gentleman's house, here we see the man going through his everyday routine of how he gets ready for the day. We see several shots such as the man getting dressed, making coffee and eating breakfast. We'll use this opportunity to include various different types of shots.

To give the audience a feel of what type of person the man is, we'll see the man go about his average day. This involves him going to the dry cleaners to drop off a suit, and then going to several gambling shops. Whilst he is walking in and out of the gambling shops he is unknowingly being watched by someone. We will make a particular effort to distinguish this, we will have a shot in where you can see the man going either in or out of a gambling shop and a picture being taken from a professional camera. We will also distinguish the person whom is taking the photographs. Although we will  not see his face, we will see something to separate him from others, for example, an expensive looking watch, or maybe a scar.

Transition Between Middle and End - As the day goes on we'll see him having dinner, in particular he'll be going into a local fast food kebab shop. We'll then see him take his food home, and eat. Whilst he is eating his mobile phone will go off, this is where we will use a shot to peer over his shoulder, this allows the audience to read the SMS whilst knowing that the main character is reading it too. The SMS will contain a time and location of a meet. The man will 'freshen up' and then leave the house.

As we see him walking down the road on his way to the location we will create a transitioning effect to skip the journey. We'll then arrive at a location where the main character walks into a dimly lit room with a table. This will be a poker table surrounded by several men drinking, smoking etc.

End - At this point, the main character walks into the poorly lit room which will be rather empty. In the centre of the room will be a round table with three or four men sitting round it. One of which will be identifiable as the person whom was following the main character earlier on. The way that we hopefully try to communicate that this is the same character is by his watch, we'll give him a rather expensive looking watch to distinguish him from the other gentleman at the table.

This will be a perfect opportunity for us to use camerawork and lighting to our advantage. We plan to use several close ups to capture the players facial expression and to build up tension in the room. We'll use the lighting to make it seem dark in the room, whilst highlighting the characters faces. We intend to use very bright, intense and hot lighting to do so, this will hopefully also cause the characters at the table to sweat slightly, adding to the tension on camera. As the lighting may be slightly to bright we will use equipment such as lighting umbrellas to diffuse the light.

During the poker game, the main character will bet all of his possessions plus things he may not actually be able to give up if he loses. This is when he eventually loses the game. As the man doesn't actually have all of these items and cash at hand the other players agree to let him give it up later on.

Obviously he is unable to give over things he doesn't have, so he ignores there attempts to communicate with him, unknowingly they're actually ruthless thugs.

The next scene we see is the same as what was presented at the beginning of the short film. The main character stumbling out of a house which is on fire, very dazed. Again the man will stop, turn around and be faced with a gun pointing at him which will be again shown by a POV shot from the shooters perspective. However, what we now will see this time around is a POV shot from the main characters point of view, and also a long shot from a side angle of the firearm being pointed at the main character. The main character will then be shot from the POV from the shooters angle, and then the screen will fade out into the credits.

Pre-Production Research - Poker Game Setting [Keelan]

As poker games go, they can be pretty intense if big sums are on stake, therefore we will be using this to our advantage. Here we can use several different camera shots to capture the facial expression of each character.

- By researching on the internet I have found common angles that are shot of poker games in movies, as well as being able to gain a more in depth knowledge of the setting.

First Person View of Cards (Close Up)
-A rather good shot that I found was from a first person perspective, it allows the audience to easily view the persons cards. I do quite like how the camera has been purposely focused on the cards as well, this was using depth of field. This may be a good thing to do in our short film.


First Hand View of Cards & Table
- I also think that this would be a rather good camera angle to include in our short film as it gives a good view on both the players cards and his surroundings. This will assist in giving the audience a sense of location.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Pre-production planning and intro ideas - Elliott


Starts with the dead guy walking out from behind a building and staring up at it from the street. Small explosion from the windows (filmriot styl-e) and cut to shot of dead guy putting on reflective sunglasses that show flames in lenses. Cut back to the OTS shot (dead guy centred, low angle) as a much bigger explosion knocks him backwards out of frame. Fast paced shots of him falling back and cracking head on road, birds eye shot centered on his face as he struggles to hold consciousness (eyes flickering etc) with maybe a drop of blood coming out to the right of his head to show that it is probably a fatal injury. Camera tracks into his face and a fade to black synchs with him losing consciousness.

 

Beginning

Straight cut to dead guy waking up in bed very suddenly sitting up, drenched in sweat. Camera starts with birds eye (to graphically match with losing consciousness shot) and then tracks angles with the dead guy sitting up to end at a straight angle. Dead guy holds the sitting pose breathing heavily then sinks back down while groaning to reveal calendar on wall behind him (possibly sexy nuns or something) with day circled and text added to bottom saying 2 Days Earlier etc. freeze frame (music fades in [18 with a bullet?]) and then cut to moving camera shot of littered junk on bedroom floor, womens underwear etc and angles up to show dead guy putting both feet down onto the floor off edge of the bed.

            -possible- montage of dead guy putting on suit etc ends with a shot like Sanji thing in mirror (cigar + hat) sometime in the camera shows a newspaper clipping on the wall (can be made by gluing stuff on a normal sun newspaper) saying something like ‘Teenage Hotshot’s Poker Millions’ explaining the use of teenagers in a ‘serious’ piece about gambling.

 

Random ideas

 

·         Man in the background of a shot reading newspaper: front spread says ‘Teenage lads make pimp short film’ and a sub heading about breaking the fourth wall ‘fourth wall broken: police mystified by vandalism spree’

·         Grim reaper shown going about random junk in background: riding by on a bike, in the background in a tescos checking if a watermelon is ripe while 2 talking characters walk by in front, peeking round a corner.

·         in credits Death takes his hood off to show another hood underneath

·         Death’s hood can be made better by using a feathered mask to black out any face still showing underneath.

·         As many cool graphic match shots as possible to show changing location (think ‘sherlock’)

·         When we reach retelling the first shots from a different angle to show hidden details could end on a POV shot from the dead guy seeing death walking up to him. A zoom into Death’s face could serve as a fade to black into the credits.

·         Would be really cool if I could do literal ‘foreshadowing’ by giving the dead guy ‘four shadows’ at one point

·         Outtakes after the credits are always good.

·         Could do credits like an 80s bond thing with the green-screen so easy to use (preferably not)

·         Check out the guys who did a film-noir gangster thing last year

·         Car-crash scene

·         Fall off bridge into river (can use Sally’s swimming pool and this http://www.amazon.co.uk/GaoHuiHong-Clear-Layer-Waterproof-Mobile/dp/B00B5T2YBI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380103185&sr=8-1&keywords=waterproof+phone+bag phone case to film from low underwater angle the person falling in the river)

·         Get my bike in there somewhere

·         Need poker chips and case etc now we’re not with Elliott C