2nd Production Meeting

 Lauren and I have once again got our thinking heads on and we have had a second production meeting.
We have discussed our film schedule and when we think is best suitable for us to meet up and film. 
Later I will post evidence on my blog of our discussions and explain how it will benefit our progress.

Main Task - Storyboard

 ^^ Kimbee ^^                                                                                ^^ Lozbee^^

Me and Lauren have been busy busy bees today as we have spent the majority of our day working on our media coursework. I am quite proud of us!

Lauren has been busy completing another task that will be useful for both of us while I have been drawing out our storyboard.

Here is a picture of some of the completed sheets!

So this means that, while we were working hard, we have completed 4 of the tasks on our L.O.I!


- complete our storyboard. J
- take a picture of the completed storyboard and upload it to our blogs as evidence. J
- create a Shot List using the completed storyboard. J
- create a Filming Schedule - decide when and where we are going to film.
- look at creating a Risk Assessment sheet for our first shooting.
- decide the order of opening titles. J


This means that the only vital tasks left to complete are creating a Filming Schedule and creating a Risk Assessment sheet. As we only have a week left of school before we break up, these need to be completed ASAP. Filming will not be a problem and me and Lauren see each other out of school anyway, so we will be able to arrange a day where we can both go and film the majority of our opening shots. Exciting stuff!

Main Task - Planning Storyboard + Shot List

Today, we have decided on the order of our shots, and which audio is going to be placed with them when we are editing.

We have drafted a rough version of half of our storyboard, to see how we are going to draw our final storyboard. We also have a page with all of the shots, titles and audio in order, to help us draw up our final storyboard and from that, hopefully create an animatic.

Freesound - example clips.

Tonight I have been browsing through some horror-related audio clips on www.freesound.org, another audio site that Big P introduced us to a few days ago.


I have found and downloaded a few clips that are similar to what I imagine me and Lauren will use in our film opening. They are brief audio clips to go in the background of a piece to create tension. When I listened to the clips through my laptop before downloading them, I found them quite spooky, so I would like to put the clips to a piece of spooky film and see what the effect would be like with it altogether.


I have uploaded the clips that I downloaded from FreeSound onto SoundCloud. Here are three of the audio clips that are on my SoundCloud account:


 Horror clips - Scape by kimchamberlainkba 
 Horror clips - Explosion by kimchamberlainkba 
 Horror clips - Ambience by kimchamberlainkba 

Soundcloud account

I have just registered with http://www.soundcloud.com/, an audio sharing website that I have previously posted about, so that I can upload audio clips and link them to my blog as evidence of research.


I have created an account under the name of kimchamberlainkba. To access my account and hear any tracks that I have uploaded, you can go to www.soundcloud.com/kimchamberlainkba.

Main Task - Storyboard

The first task on the big ol' L.O.I is to complete our storyboard for our Main Task.


The storyboard will show the different camera angles and shots of our film opening in sequence, so that when it comes to filming, we know what to film, how to film it, and when editing, where to put it. On the storyboard will also be notes of any audio that we wish to add in when editing or filming, and different camera movements that we may use during filming to improve the quality of our work.


Below is an example of a storyboard. It is half of the storyboard that me and Lauren completed for our Preliminary Task.

List Of Importance!!

Today I had a wake up call from the ledge himself, Big P. 
Media is a subject that really needs time, effort and dedication! And recently, myself and Lauren have been slacking on these things... In a previous blog post, I made a point of all the tasks that we have to complete before the 4th January, which realistically, isn't that far away, and we have still only completed minimal tasks. We really need to get things completed, and fast!! Tomorrow is definitely the day for us to really crack down and get things done.


After thinking carefully about what really needs to be done, we have devised a List Of Importance (L.O.I).
We are hoping to:


- complete our storyboard.
- take a picture of the completed storyboard and upload it to our blogs as evidence.
- create a Shot List using the completed storyboard.
- create a Filming Schedule - decide when and where we are going to film.
- look at creating a Risk Assessment sheet for our first shooting.
- decide the order of opening titles.

Crackdown Day!

Tomorrow, Thursday 8th December 2011, is THE day of cracking down on work.


Free time = travelling to the media room to get some serious planning down and get sorted. If we can get as much done as possible, it will make life easier when it comes to practicing techniques and editing, which will eventually improve our skills and hopefully improve our final result.
Yay!

Level 4!

There are certain things that I need to achieve in order for my blog to gain a level 4. Our blogs will be assessed on the 3rd January so these are things that I need to think about, regardless of my target grade. My target is a B/C so I will be aiming high anyway, but if I can boost my grade then I will try!


Level 4 (16–20 marks)

Planning and research evidence on your blog is complete and detailed.

There is excellent research into similar products and a

potential target audience.

There is excellent organisation of actors, locations and mise-en-scene

There is excellent work on your script, storyboard, shot list and filming schedule.


There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning on your blog.


Time management is excellent - this is clear by the time stamps on your posts.

Freesound!

Literally, as I type, Big P is showing us www.freesound.org, which is a website full of different audio clips that we can download and use in our Main Task.

There is a search bar on the site, so we can search for specific clips. It is something we will be looking into when editing our filming.

                                                This is myself and Lauren hard at work!

Script example

DRAG ME TO HELL

Written by

Ivan Raimi and Sam Raimi

INT. BEDROOM - BEFORE DAWN


22 year old Stephanie Browne is jarred from a peaceful sleep as the alarm clock BUZZES. She hits the snooze button and plops back down onto the pillow. After a few seconds of pure sleeping bliss, she wills herself up. She moves through her Ikea furnished bedroom, past a "Hang in there, baby" poster and into the bathroom.


INT. BATHROOM - A MOMENT LATER


Stephanie turns on the shower. While waiting for the water to heat up, she looks into the mirror and with exaggerated pronunciation, recites:

STEPHANIE

There is no friction, with proper

diction. Good sounds abound, when

the mouth is round.

 

She catches herself on the last word, a hint of "Missouri

twang" slipping through.

STEPHANIE

Round.

 

Yawn. She slips off her nightgown and lumbers into the

steaming shower.

INT. KITCHEN -- MORNING



She opens the refrigerator: A half grapefruit sits next to an inviting slice of chocolate cake. She's tempted, but chooses the grapefruit.



EXT. VENTURA BOULEVARD PARKING STRUCTURE - MORNING



A sunny Southern California day. Commuters speed by. Stephanie's FORD FOCUS pulls into the PARKING STRUCTURE, across the street from the BANK OF CALIFORNIA. She steps from the car, smartly dressed for work and walks briskly toward the intersection. The traffic signal changes to "Don't Walk". A BUSINESS MAN next to her, sprints across the street. Stephanie almost follows but decides to obey the sign. She looks down to see a little KITTEN. It rubs against her ankles and PURRS.

STEPHANIE

Well, you're a little cutie.

Main Task - Casting

We have completed casting for our Main Task.


The two characters first seen in the opening are the main characters of the film, Kim Chamberlain and Lauren Head

                                                     Kim Chamberlain                                                               

                                         

                                                                            

                                                                          Lauren Head

Main Task - Location Planning

We have found the ideal location for the beginning of our film opening.


While walking home from a casual cinema trip, Lauren showed me some woods with a derelict building in the middle, and as the dark was creeping, in the atmosphere was actually quite creepy.


We fell in love with it immediately as it is perfect for our filming!


Here are some pictures of the location that we took on the night.

Location planning - picture evidence on Prezi

Main Task - Script

We have a small problem with the script for our Main Task.


Our film opening, as it stands, has been planned with hardly any dialogue. The only speech in the opening is right at the beginning, where the two actors say a couple of lines each. 
In a way this is a good thing because it gives us more time to focus on other parts of our Main Task.


Here is a rough version of what I think our script will consist of:


Kim: Hello, I am Kim Chamberlain.


Lauren: Hello, I am Lauren Head.


Kim: And welcome to...

Kim and Lauren: (whispered) Project Shadow...

Lauren: ooooh!

Kim: ooooh!

Kim: *laughs* turn it off!

Lauren: *laughs* turn it off, turn it off!While this is being filmed there will be relevant action but in the whole opening, this is the only dialogue that is spoken.
There will be a short clip of Lauren whispering "Have you heard the rumours?" There will be voiceovers after this clip, again of a voice whispering "Have you heard the rumours?"

Production Meeting

Today, Lauren and I had our Production meeting, as requested by Big P, to discuss our ideas and list which important tasks need to be done before 4th January.


Over the next few days, we will be working on writing a script, location planning, casting and figuring out when we are both available to begin the filming of Project :  Shadow.


This is a picture of us hard at work.

Vimeo query from da Big P

Big P had a query (seen on the comments section of Vimeo post).

"What is the purpose of this in relation to your coursework? How will you intend to use Vimeo to help illustrate the various stages of your production work from now on?"


Well, Vimeo has already come in handy as we have used it to upload our Preliminary Task.
It will be useful for uploading progress of our Main Task. During the 3 stages of making our opening (Pre-Production, Production, Post-production) we will be recording some short clips, giving updates of our progress and how we feel things are going. This is where Vimeo comes in because we can use it to upload all of our videos to our blogs.

Vimeo

Ok, so here's the dilemma.


Our school has blocked YouTube, the main way to upload videos to the internet.
It has blocked Dailymotion, another way to upload videos to the internet.

But no worries! Big P has a solution!


www.vimeo.com!
Vimeo is a website that we can use for free in school. We can upload, share and embed videos using Vimeo, meaning we have a way to upload videos to our blogs. Yay!

Soundcloud

www.soundcloud.com is another website that we can use to upload audio clips.


If we want to record any interviews, or any feedback, we can upload the clips to Soundcloud and then post them onto our blog.


Here is a description from the Soundcloud site:


"SoundCloud is an audio platform that enables anyone to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds across the internet, in a simple, accessible and feature-rich way. From sample to symphony and soundbite to soliloquy, SoundCloud allows sound creators anywhere to instantly record audio on the site or via mobile applications and share them publicly or privately; to embed sound across websites, social networks and blogs and receive feedback from the community."

What does a film production company do?

There are lots and lots of roles within a production company (seen in another blog post, Film Production Roles).

A production company within film has a lot of responsibility! Each individual has their own role but they all have to work together as a team for everything to run smoothly.

The main tasks and functions of a film production company are:

- Fundraising for the production (they may accomplish this through a parent company, partner, or private investor.)

- Budgeting

- Scheduling

- Scripting

- Supplying talent and resources!

- Organising the staff

- The production itself

- Post-production

- Distribution

- Marketing

Things to do before 4th January

Today Mr Henton got his nag on and reminded us that we all have to keep up to date with our blogs if we want to get a decent grade. He talked us through some of the key things that our blogs will need to contain, and how detailed our blog posts need to be. There are a list of things that need to be completed for January 4th:


Script for your film opening set out in the correct way, photographed and posted to your blog. It would be a good idea to take some photos of you in the discussion, production stages of this too.

Storyboard for your film opening. This needs to be completed on the KBA Media Studies Storyboard sheets which can be collected from me or the reprographics room. Again, support the evidence of this taking place with posts detailing how you created the storyboard and the decisions you made along the way. The storyboard will include details relating to camera shots, angle and movement as well as sound and location. Don't just post pictures of the completed sheets, detail the process as it develops.

Location planning needs to take place. This should be done carefully and needs to show that you have 'scouted' different potential locations and thought of the pros and cons of these. Bear in mind things such as accessibility, lighting, etc and evidence these thoughts on your blog.

Casting should be detailed unless there is no evidence of a person at any point in your opening. Think about the casting process and how you can evidence this creatively on your blog. You can take photos but, perhaps, can also video your casting sessions or record audio of your thoughts.

Once all of this has been done you move into the LOGISTICAL phase of your planning. These means sorting out the what, when and where.

A Filming Schedule will detail what needs to be filmed, when you plan to do this and where the filming will happen. It will also take into account the props you will need to acquire for each shoot.

Before you actually go and film you also need a Risk Assessment and Shot List for each filming session. The former ensures you have considered health and safety risks whilst the latter sets out, literally, a list of all the shots that need to be captured during that filming session.

Film Opening Ideas

In today's lesson, we began to think about how we are going to produce our Main Task.
Our Main Task is to create a 2-3 minute film opening using the camera shots and different editing techniques that we have been learning about.


Myself and Lauren filled a whole sheet of A4 paper with ideas and planning for our Main Task (photo below). We thought about previous film openings that we had watched and pieced lots of different ideas together. We have been discussing the opening titles, which sequence they will appear in, the music we will be using in the background, any voice-overs that may be included, and different shots that we will be putting into the opening that will hopefully tell some of the story without having to watch the whole film. We hope to make our opening interesting and effective.

Film Opening Timeline

We were handed a sheet today that had 3 different sections on it. These were "TITLES", "AUDIO" and "VISUALS". We watched the opening of the film 'SE7EN' and broke it down into these different sections. 
We filled the timeline in with the opening titles, in order of appearance, the audio heard in the first few minutes and the visual effects used. This breaking down of the opening helped us to understand how effective these 3 sections will be when creating our own film openings.


*I will place a picture here once my sheet is completed*

60 Second Pitch - Audience Response

Lauren and I showed our 60 Second Pitch to two of our friends, Rachel Cowie and Laura Johnson, aged 16-17. This sort of age falls straight into our target audience! Woohoo!

Our 60 Second Pitch was a clip of me and Lauren talking about our idea for our teen horror film, Project : Shadow. The video of our pitch can be seen on my 60 Second Pitch post.

We showed the video of our pitch to Rachel and Laura and asked their opinions - what they thought of the idea, what they liked about it, what they thought we could improve on, etc etc. Below are their responses.




Rachel Cowie: I think it is a great idea, although it's very typical of a horror film. I feel I could relate to the characters as could my friends, it would be a great film to watch with the girls. I also feel that the film would be something to remember, because the actors used in the film would be of our own age range and it would make us more aware of our surroundings.' 












Laura Johnson: "I'm not too keen on the concept. I think they could have been more creative and pushed the boundries more; maybe if they changed the killer into a ghost or shadow, as I prefer more psychological horrors. However I do feel that having a group of girls as the main characters in the film will relate well to the target audience of teenagers."

Preliminary Task

Untitled from Lauren Head on Vimeo.

Looking at Opening Titles

In today's lesson we looked at Opening Titles and what effect they have on the viewing audience. Opening Titles are the titles that come up on the screen within the first few minutes of a film - but they are not necessarily used in every film. However, it is rare for a film to not have any opening titles.

Opening titles give information to the viewers, such as the title of the film, who is involved within the film's production company, the name of the distribution company, the name of the director, the actors that are in the film, maybe even the time that the film is set in. They can also set the scene or give an idea of the genre before the film really begins, to draw the viewers in to the remainder of the film.  

An opening we studied in detail is the opening of the film Dawn of The Dead. We watched the first 2 minutes and picked up several opening titles:

First to appear was the name of the distribution company - Universal Pictures. The film title came afterwards, followed by the individual names of the actors. Then came casting by, music by, costume designer, co producer, editor, production designer, and director of photography. All of these were shown only in the first two minutes.

However, we also looked at the beginning of Zombieland - but this has no opening titles whatsoever.

60 Second Pitch

We had to complete the task of creating an idea for a teen horror film that later on, we will develop and produce. To promote our idea clearly, and to find a way of getting good constructive feedback, we were asked to shorten our idea down into 60 seconds, which Mr Henton (who was acting as an important production person from Caveman films) filmed on his iPad, and showed to the rest of the class.



We decided on the name Project : Shadow.
The film is about two girls who have to make a film project for their media class (relevant and simple!). The girls venture into the woods to begin filming, and they start seeing things which begin to scare them. The atmosphere suddenly changes completely, things become dark and eerie, and shadows are seen drifting around. As the film progresses, the girls begin to figure out what the shadows' intentions really are, and the film follows them on their journey of trying to escape from the shadows' clutches, as their world slowly caves in around them.



Me and Lauren shortened our idea down into different main events/ main points, and developed a small script. We took this with us when going to record our pitch so that we had reminders of the main events, and we had a breakdown of the idea. This made it so much easier to promote our film idea clearly. Below is the script.




Kim - Our film is called Project : Shadow. Our film is set in a small town in 2011.
Lauren - A group of girls have the task of creating a horror film for school.
Kim - They find themselves the perfect location to set their horror film.
Lauren - Unfortunately shadows are lurking, and they sense danger after coming across numerous dead animals.
Kim - As the girls head home, a number of shadows appear and the atmosphere suddenly changes.
Lauren - The film follows the girls as they try to escape the shadows and slowly lose everything around them.
Kim - We chose to use typical horror conventions for this film as the target audience can familiarise, and from research we found it is what people enjoy the most.
Lauren - We decided on a film rating of 15 as some scenes may not be suitable for a younger audience.


And lastly, here is the video of our 60 Second Pitch for Project : Shadow.



chamberlain head 60 sec by kbamediastudies

Filming of the Preliminary Task

We completed our Prelim filming today. It took us a while to get sorted because our casting was two teachers in the school, meaning it was difficult to arrange a time when both of them were free.

Our filming took place mainly in the Drama Hall, pictured right, but we also filmed in one of the school corridors. We managed to get a lot of different camera shots and a few lines of dialogue. We had a few takes of each scene so that we had a variety of shots.

Film production roles

Today we looked at the different roles within a production company. There are many different jobs to do when producing a film.


The Writer -  writes the script for the film.
The Producer - checks and controls things like getting enough money and employing people to work in the team.
The Director - directs the actors and crew.
The Cinematographer - sets up the shots according to the director.
The Production Manager - draws up and manages budgets and schedules.
The Assistant Director - maintains order, makes sure actors are present.
The Line Producer - co-ordinates financial and scheduling aspects of the shooting phase.
The Composer - composes the music for the film.
The Assistant Camera - cleans camera, operates the clapper board and replaces the film.
The Gaffer - places the lights where directed.
The Best Boy - the gaffer's assistant.
The Grip - lays the tracks down for tracking shots, builds scaffolding and more equipment.
The Boom Operator - manoeuvres the microphones.
The Sound Recorder - records sound and directs The Boom Operator.
The Sound Editor - places the audio with the video, deals with sound effects, music and narration.
The Sound Mixer - combines all audio tracks into one.
The Picture Editor - arranges shots in final.
The Art Director - creates the look of the film through sets, lighting, costumes and props.
The Special Effects Designer - creates stunts and effects.
The Make-Up Artist - changes the way actors look.
The Costume Designer - designs the costumes for the film.