Our Sequence

Creative critical reflection Task 4: How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and online- in this project?

 To complete the 4th CCR Task I've created a website:

Click here to acsess the website

I didnt ebnend this website so blogger wouldn't struggle loading all of the content.

Creative critical reflection Task 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this production?

 If created a Prezi to answer this task: 

During the pre production stage of my coursework I produced a short video or podcast each week about the key learnings, form said week during a time span of four weeks:

Podcast 30th of January 2022:

Podcast 6th of February 2022:

Video-Podcast 20th of February 2022:

Video 27th of February 2022:

Creative critical reflectionTask 2: How dose your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

 Previously on this blog I tried to define the person who most likely enjoy our fictional media product. 

 

 

I created this PowerPoint in the week after shoot day. Looking back now my answer would most likely stay the same. Except for less emphasis on the action elements. In the edit we emphasised the comedy and Horror elements more than action. This would most likely leave us with a primarily male audience between the ages of 15 to 25. Living in a more rural area due to the location of our film. These is off course just the primary target audience, people outside of this audience may very likely enjoy the movie the same amount or even more. 

 

Our sequence features multiple moments and or themes  that highlight how ‘Requiem for Peace’ would be appealing to our target audience: 

 

One moment through which our sequence would engage with the previously described demographic is the murder right at the start.
It is a instant thrill. As a murder is probably one or even the most intense thing a person can experience. The imitation of this is often partly the main selling point not only for so called ‘slasher’ films but also many video games. How engaging these moments in media texts are is evident because of viral movie kill count videos. The brutality of the murder is highlighted and emphasised through the pleonastic diegetic stabbing sound effects. 

 

A convention we used which applies to Roland Berths enigma code is the constant usage of mystery elements. We tried to confuse the audience at the start of the film as much as possible in order for them to ask questions like why dose the entire village seem to be okay, with a man covered in blood walking around the village? This makes the audience engage more actively with our product as they start thinking about and analysing our product.

  

Our killer is a middle-aged man which is quite common in horrors. He is in many ways supposed to remind the audience of many iconic horror villains like Michal Myers or Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13^th.  By using a similar to other horror movies and stereotypical character the audience can easily understands who the killer is making it easier for them to focus on and Comprehended the rest of the scene. This easy to understand convention enables the audience to connect our product to other media text they previously consumed and enjoyed.  We remind them of what they as an audience like in order to then instantly present a new version of what they already like. 

 

Entertainment theorists like Berthold Brecht argue that comedy is one if not the best way to engage an audience. This off course also applies to our audience and how we tried to engage them with our product. The comedy is key for this as it highlights absurdity and acknowledges it. Also comedy is hopefully also simply fun. 

 

Our sequence features one Teenagers and the rest of the picture would go on to interduce us to other young adult character, who would be the focus for the rest of the film. In real life but also on screen we engage and connect with characters we relate to. Age is an easy way to do so. Which for example is the reason why many shows for Teenagers are said in a school as it reflects their own world. By having young protagonists, we try to relate and thereby engage with the audience. 

 

If we were to redo the sequence with maybe even a budget and more possibility’s I belief that we should have added more of a splatter mood to our product as the killing in our sequence is not really explicit. By using more Splatter conventions we might be able to engage our audience better. I also belief we should have added more humour, comedic elements to our sequence which in my opinion was partly missing in our sequence to fully engage our target demographic.

Centrale to my Poster design is the young adult cast. I highlighted them in hope of instantly appealing to the audience. As well as the conflict of generations which is hinted at through the priest in the background with and evil smirk. As already discussed through characters which are the same age as our target audience we try to engage them but also through the generation conflict witch has been going on basically since the start of our society but still seems as relevant as ever with many young people feeling as if they are being left with a world in shedders. Because of this conflicts relevancy I believe that the poster design could hint at a engaging part of the film. Their weapons are quite comedic. This offcouse highlights the comedy parts of. The movie while especially the male leads facial expressions in addition to the red backdrop hint a scarry or horror movie. 

 

The stylised low opacity cross hiding the priest is supposed to remind the viewer of a black bar which is often used to hide the identity of  a criminal in TV shows. This links to the nowadays quite popular quite flaudimage of the curch due to many scandals in the last few centaury’s.  I chose to make the cross be see-through as the actor portraying the priest would be most likely the most recognisable performer, his appearance on the poster therefore makes the movie more appealing to a larger audience. His name is also the first name a potential audience member would see when reading the top billing actors. The gothic titles I used are supposed to link our Film to old classic gothic horrors. The relasdate is said shortly before Halloween as this would be the time were the most people are in a horror mood. The comedic elements of our poster would differentiate it from others. The tagline would then define the style of comedy.  

 

 

Previously on this blog (in the blog post 'preparation for evaluation tasks') I talked about which studio would most likely distribute our product, I focused on the location and size of our production as well as the quite regional or national topics and elements. In the end I decided that a company like Bulldog film distribution would most likely be the best fit for our production. As they focus primarily on independent distribution in the UK. But nowadays I think a direct to streaming release might also be a great Option. Shudder is a streaming service who focus on Horror content. Amongst other things they produced 2020s ‘Host’ directed by Rob Savage. Host was a small independent production similar to what our product would most likely be. Both are horrors. But our film is maybe most importantly a comedy. Sky just acquired the rights to Nick Gillespie’s 2021 film ‘Paul Dudes Deadly lunch break’. A dark independent British comedy. Which would also perfectly describe our product. Therefore, and because sky would enable our product a wide international audience I belief that ‘Requiem for Peace’ should be published on Sky. 

 

 

But in order for our product to even be able to get a SKY deal we would need to distribute it to different film festivals which more Specifically focus on either or independent productions, British productions, comedy and or horrors. When a company would decide to realise our product the focus of the marketing campaign should most likely be the internet and more specifically social media. Our films own Instagram would be the first step to do so. Exclusive comedic videos of our more famous actor and the tow young adult leads should be advertised on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. These platforms enable advertisers to specifically target. Their target audiences. I would also keep a clear mainly red white and black colour palate on all of our advertisement. Red and black/darkens  are typical  horror colours while the white would offer a clear contrast. The comedic elemt would then be highlighted by pictures of our lead actors with highted gestures and facial expressions as well as wired weapons. In generall I would mainly focus on the intrent when it comes to the marketing campaign as our young audience is most active there and especially when we realise our product on a streaming service our film would only be a few clicks away. But also niche film magazines, like Empire could be a great marketing opertunety for our product as it is a parodie on other films wich offoucrse appeals to people who are intresead in films.  

 

Creative Critical Reflection Task 1: How dose your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

 

Day six of editing

 Today was the final day of editing. we started out colour grading our sequence luckily we could use the same grading for all of the external shots and then adjusted it for the church scene.    

There were still some ruff patches. For example after listening to the sequence with headphones we noticed that we still needed to adjust the audio in some parts which turned out to be a bit of a hustle because we didn’t record atmosphere sound on the day which led to the some transitions of audio clips just not sounding great. Especially because we had to boost up some dialogue audios but after trying a view different things we found a way to create a good sound design using some normal fades and the constant power effect. Because we shortened the length of the church bells I then suggested to adjust the duration of the establishing shot of the church otherwise the paste would have shifted in a wired way. 

 

We then focused on the titles in order to make them more stylized we used the font that we had used for the gothic title card now for all of the credits. This lead to some problems as premier for some reason mixed up some sizes so we had go through each one of them and adjust the size. Bert suggested to let the titles fade in and out which looked great. We then moved on to fade every first letter of a first and second name red after James killed the victim suggesting that the red text in the way is blood spilling on the credit. We then also changed the colour of the title credit from white to red this fitted the style of our scene and made the title more readable. We then decided to add a few blood drops to one letter at the end again adding to the hot fuzz over stylized vibe we were going for and suddenly we were done!

How are titles presented?

 The way and order titles are presented in opening title sequences can vastly change depending on genre and production size according to studiobinder.com the most common way of listing opening titles is in the folowing order:  

1. PRODUCTION COMPANY presents (distributor)
2. a PRODUCTION COMPANY production (producer)
3. a FILMMAKER film
4. Film Title
5. Lead Cast
6. Supporting Cast
7. Casting Director
8. Music Composer
9. Costume Designer
10. Associate Producers
11. Editors
12. Production Designer
13. Director of Photography
14. Executive Producer
15. Producer
16. Writers
17. Director

 

As success in the film industry often depends not only on knowing people but also to be known, all creatives would like to see their name first and most importantly clearly readable. This leads to discussions about placement of the credits being made even before the movie has been shot. Making movies is expensive, the people who finance movies or organise the financing tend to appear first.  

As previously mentioned, the way credits are being presented depends on the kind of film. For example in order to not disturb from the very emotionally charged opening of Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino presents the titles not during the opening scene but in an additional sequence. 

 

 Tarnation’s film are stylized. Inglorious Basterds is set in the second world war.  Therefore, the titles seem to be a heightened version of the popular typography of the time mixed with extreme colours like the Yellow which doesn’t makes sense in a historical context but hligthes Tarnation’s bowled style. This goes to show how titles alone can transport a lot of meaning even if they’re on their own.

A product more similar to ours ‘Zombieland’ demonstrates its titles in bold attention grabbing colours during the opening scene, they’re integrated. This seems to be happening quit often in the action/horror  comedy genre we are going for. For example ‘The suicided squad’ directed by James Gun presents its titles in a bright orange colour with small cuts within the typography. These suite the mood and feeling James Gun is famous for (,80s nostalgia). The titles are carefully placed to fit and enhance the framing and look of the sequence and partly present opposition to the dark lighting. 

Day five of editing

 We began the day looking at Bert’s idea for the credit’s placement when James walks down the street. He placed the credits on the ground and James would walk over them. While the effect was good, we all agreed that it wouldn’t suit the style of the video. Bert also did another effect the shot that reveals our title card starts out on a statue of Maria and Jesus and then tilts to a church window. Bert tracked the title on the window. Meaning that the text stays in one position no matter how the camera moves. This looked amazing we added a still frame as the camera started to shake and then a fade to black while the text would still be visible. Because the tile card is placed Infront of a church. window and the font is really stylized we added strong contour.  
 

Our teacher noted that the shoot where James walks down the street takes up to much time. So, we tried a very stylized of editing and only displayed the moments when he enters the frame, when he is at the middle of the road and when he is shortly Infront of the camera. This not only made the sequence quicker but also gave us a lot of extra time. I therefore suggested to add the bit with the dog in the same style. We only used a wide shot and show how James and the dogwalker entre the farm, how they meet and how they basically leave the frame again. This worked out great! The stylized way of editing we used for these scenes really highlighted the style we were going for. The bit of James walking down the street would make him seem scary while the dog bit would offer some comic relive. Later on I then had to adjust the tiles again as they were completely misplaced because of our reedit.

I wrapped up the day working a bit on the sound design. I added a scream when the victim first sees the killer. Earlier we discussed to use the techno beat first as a diegetic soundtrack wich would then switch to a non diegetic soundtrack. This worked great especially with this more stylized edit. But the soundtrack still needed to end once we got to the church so i tried a few different thing, then after looking at the scene with my teacher I decided to let the music fade out quickly during the esthablishing shot of the church. 

Day four of editing

 We started the session by finishing up the sound design. Our sound design features an additionally to the diegetic sounds and dialogue we recorded on the day, a diegetic techno beat which is muffled before he opens the door in order to make it seem as if the door is blocking the sound making the effect more realistic. Bert also added some stabbing sounds. We now had to find out how we wanted to score the end of our sequence. We tried multiple soundtracks for example a dramatic orchestral beat which would slowly become louder in through the entire scene and climax’s when the title card appears. We also found some single choir voices which we combined and tested if they would suit the scene. We ended up searching for some organ music like we planned. Bert and I found the same peace, Bach’s Toccata played on an organ, but we both agreed that the start of the peace would be to cliché. But while listing through the hole peace  I found a moment which would fit perfectly for our project. I screen-recorded it and we added it to our project at the end. I changed the timing so approximately two seconds before we cut to the title card the music would quickly fade in, making the sequence smoother. 

 

Pablo and I then came up with completely fake names and the timing for the credits. We had a list of different credits our sequence should included. I then tried to place the titles in a more creative and in the needed to find a way between practicability and aesthetic. Like we previously discussed I placed the first titles between James’s legs, Bert is going to work on the next titles in aftereffects as he wants to make it seem as if they were written on the street. In the church scene I looked at the framing and tried to find aesthetic way to incorporate the titles in the shot. In premier you can turn on a grid which will not only show you were the middle of each side of the frame is but also in which part of the frame you should place you credits. When timing the duration of each credit on screen it is helpful to adjust the duration to however long it takes you to read the credit three times.
 

Day three of editing

 Today we cut the dog scene simply because we were overtime. We diceded to only use the hand healed shot at the start as it was more intense after we finished the picture cut there was still one shot that bugged us. It was a wide shit of James walking down a street That just took to long. So Bert had an idea he proposed to rotoscope James and we would then be able to place him on multiplae places of the frame at the same time. This would speed up the shot. Rotoscoping is like a masking but it’s partly automatic. In after effects you can highlight what part you want to be affected in our case James. After effects then analysis the fottage gram by frame and adapts the mask. With key frames you can adjust the mask. The good thing about doing this rotoscope is that even if we end up not using it to multiply him we can still use it to place text on the road on wich he can walk. This is likely to look really cool as a credit. 

Research on Saul and Elaine Bass

 

Saul and Elaine Bass are two highly influential Filmmakers who vastly changed the way titles are presented in films. Saul Bass born in 1920 who was awarded the Oscar for the best short film for his documentary ‘Why Man Creates’ in 1968. Born in the Bronx as the son of eastern European Jewish immigrants Bass attended Brooklyn Collage. Like many influenceial visionaries of the film Industry he started out doing advertisement, designed logos and a lot of different freelancer work. His career in Hollywood began when he moved to Los Angeles in 1946. Eight years later director Otto Preminger recognized his talent after Bass had designed a poster for Preminger’s 1954 musical romance Carmen Jones. Preminger asked Bass to create the opening title sequence for his movie. Bass´s goal was to not only present the titles but demonstrate the atmosphere of the movie to the audience. He aimed to turn the previously unobtrusively opening credits into an event themselves. His opening sequences are often beautiful short films themselves. Him and his wife Elaine Bass, who often is overlooked partly due to the stigma surrounding female filmmakers especially during the 20^th

century, joined in marriage in 1961. Together they collaborated with legendary directors like Alfred Hickock and Martin Scorsese. Saul Bass died in 1996, Elaine Bass who is now 95 years old and seems to be retired after she worked one last time on the remake opening title sequence of Psycho in 1998. But their legacy lasts, nearly all modern title sequences take inspiration from their work as they demonstrated how meaning can be conveyed within the opening credits how these previously bland titles can be a creative outlet creating mood and highlighting themes of the movie. 

 

From the start the Basses opening title sequence for the 1960 movie opening highlighted the movies setting in the Las Vegas. This is not only due to the music but especially because of the typography which looks like the dots on a screen the sequence is also fast pasted, contently changing the layout and thereby hinting the vibrancy of the casinos which is supported by the different colours pooing up on the screen. 

The movies comedic nature is displayed e.g. when a character on the a slot machine breaks the 4^th wall when he gets flustered  as he notices the audience watching him as he is about to kiss a woman,  this is. completely unexcepted, surprises the audience resulting in comedy. When a man floats across the slot machine because of  what seems to be a flying olive the Basses tie the films setting to its situational style of comedy. 

 

Elaine and Saul Bass highlight the movies class with symbols of wealth like the Eagle. But also with elegant shapes, these simulate ornaments often found in interior architecture of historical upper class establishments. 

More information about them:

 

Day two of editing

Today started out finishing up the church scene which took longer as expected. We had a lot of different material that we would be able to choose from. We experimented with the start of the sequence and instead of using the take shot on a tripod we used a hand healed on which looked great but now we had to redo the beginning. We then checked the time and our clip was 30seconds to long. Even without any titelcards.  We tried shorten the runtime by cutting down the start to a shorter runtime with stylized time jumps in time. Our challenge now is to get the runtime down which could be done by shortening a take where James walks down a road which durats for 30 seconds right now but we might sadly end up cutting the encounter with the dog.

 

First day of Editing

 Today was the first time we saw the footage we shoot during our shoot day! We started editing. We first watch back the footage we shoot and sorted out the takes which we want to use. We found out that all the takes where the murderer and the dog were shoot for some reason in slow-motion, but this is only a minor set back we just sped the scene up and we are going to ask James the actor of the. Murderer to rerecord his line which we will then add. Afterword’s we started editing the takes together. We got a bit carried away by details during this meeting so next time we got to ensure to stay focused and finish the first ruff cut. On the bright sight we stayed a bit behind and Bert taught me how to use masks in premiere pro. We all agreed to find music over the weekend which we would like to use in the sequence. 

History of opening titles and credits

 The first opening credits that would classifie as a opening title sequence were at the start of the 1932 paramount pictures film ‘A Farwell to arms’. Opening credits used to be simple cards with typography on them. These cards are a relic from silent films. A sheet with the credit (or title) used to be rolled Infront of the camara to create the title card. Later on transparent sheets were used for title sequences. The one minute sequence from ‘A Farwell to arms’ introduced a new trend of making these credits more exciting. Eight years later ‘Walt Disney’s fantasia’ was the first sound film to not use any form of opening credits. Todays opening title sequences have become their own art form. Studios often hire different creatives like Kyle Cooper who specialise in this filed. 

If we look at logos especially from big studios that have been around for decades we notice that they really haven’t changed much. Off course these logos have evolved due to technological advancement in computer generated images (CGI) but the logos stay the same this is done not only to be easily recognised but also nostalgia. 

Evolution of the Universal logo from 1912 to now:

 

Evolution of the Disney logo: 

The lion in MGMs icons logo used to be an actual lion:

But since 2021 the new logo is completly CGI:

 

The opening title sequence in Shaun of the dead a comedy horror film from 2004 by Edgar Wright is slow pasted the titles do not move with the camera but they are stuck in the scene adding to the unrushed feeling of the sequence these things in connection to the already slow moving humans foreshadow the zombies. The bowled ruff typography demonstrates danger. 

Zombieland’s (Zombie land from 2009 is a action horror comedy,) titles are destroyed by the violence on screen. In a way breaking the fourth wall which demonstrates on one hand the absurdity of what’s happening on screen but also intensifies the situation. 

The Suicided Squad a action comedy from 2021 features retro looking opening titles in warm colours creating humour through the juxtaposition of warm light heartedness to the brutal events on screen a theme that takes place throughout the film. 

When it comes to our opening titles I believe that we should take inspiration from these films and use bold typography using light colours and stylized text that is influenced by what is happening in the scene in order to highlight the light heartedness and comedy of the movie and the juxtaposition to its topic.

Preperation for evaluation questions

 From the company that presented you...

 

Pause. What studio would distribute (sell) our sequence if it was a feature film. If you search on the internet for distributing company’s it lists thousands of options. We need to first narrow down, what we are looking for? Our Media product is a Film. Most of the big Film studios have their own distributing company’s. The Walt Disney company for example distributes most of their products through a company called ‘Disney Media distribution’ (DMD).  Sony releases their productions through Sony Picture releasing. But there are also companies that distribute media products produced by different Studios.  Netflix has distributed a vast variety of media products. Netflix not only licences media products in order to present them on their website but they also produce in house and acquire exclusive streaming rights to content.

 

I started looking at similar media products mood and genre wise like e.g. Hot fuzz and Scary movie as our Film would likely be categorized as a horror action comedy. Scary movie a horror comedy movie from 2000 was distributed (to theatres in the us) by Dimension Films, who amongst other things released the Scream films. But they are focused on American markets and products and our film is set in a little British village and is likely to be more appealing to a UK audience. Hot fuzz a British action comedy from 2007 was distributed in the UK by Universal Pictures International (UPI) who have amongst other things released Inglorious Basterds. While UPI certainly are experts in their field they might be to big of a company and are likely to focus on products with large names attached to them. Therefore, looking at company’s who also publish Indi films is probably smarter. Kaleidoscope have distributed a wide variety of feature films of all genres and branded documentary’s world wide and in the UK and seem to be a suitable distribution company. Bulldog Film Distribution is a completely independent company that focuses on releasing films in the UK and Ireland they seem to mostly be releasing low to mid budget films. In comparison Bulldog Film Distribution (BFD) to Kaleidoscope BFD is likely to be the more effective in the UK due to their focus on the area but this might lead to more complications if we wanted to release our film world wide because we would need to find another company. Another note worthy distributing opportunity would be brit box, a video subscription service created by BBC and itv, as a local British feature would suit their niece programming. 

 

In the end BFD would most likely be most appropriate for a traditional distribution due to their experience in the UK and with Indi productions of all genres. But being acquired by Netflix for the exclusive rights would offer a lot of exposure for our picture to a large diverse audience in the UK and world-wide. Netflix is famous for their wide variety of original content form reality shows like the kissing booth to the critically acclaimed and Oscar front runner The power of the dog, and how they are able to find a audience for their products. A niche product in the great sceam of content like ours with no pre soled elements could profit from Netflix.  

Videos about the shoot day!

First video about the shoot day:

Credits: We as a group sat down and thought of the answers together. I then suggested to make the video seem as if were at a pressconfrence. Pablo and I set infront of the camera and answered the questions and Bert keyed the background and added a come-on backdrop and banner for the table. I then added subtitles. and music.  

Second video:

Credits: We as a group came up with the answers then looked for a room to film in and. We ended up filming the video in one of the media classrooms . Pablo and I answered the questions while Bert edited the video. 

The shoot day

 The shoot day started at 8:50 the hole crew met up and we discussed our next steps. We had more or less an hour left until our cast was available so we decided to make some last adjustments and perpetrations. Bert and Pablo were supposed to start putting the blood on the apron while I got the priest costume form the theatre department. I then joined them putting the blood on the apron. After trying different amounts of blood we decided on more stylized marks all-over the apron and we ended up with a very bloody look. We even developed different tequnices but the key learnings were more, more, more fake blood! 

We then moved on to the first location, a boarding house on campus (‘The Lodge’), we set up our camera and decided to first get a basic shot on a tripod which would only show the legs of our actors. We had the choice between tow doors. A ‘normal’ house door, which looked great but on the door handle was a code panel which made it seem as if it was a communal living area and not a private house another door looked a bit like a barn gate we decided to use the ‘normal’ door as it seemed more appropriate to our scene and simply framed it in away you wouldn’t be able to see the code panel. We then looked at the movement in the scene there were some limitations that we needed to keep in mind. For example we wouldn’t be able to spill extra blood or rather create a realistic wound on the actresses stomach after she gets steps therefore you shouldn’t be able to see the her stomach when and after she falls. James would hide her stomach by standing Infront of it her while she’s still falling when she’s laying on the ground we advised her to fall with her legs angled towards the camera thereby hiding her stomach. The Knife was already bloody when we started I spread blood all over it and especially at the tip. In order to make the murder seem more brutal I wanted the knife to not be visible before he stabs her. This way the blood would be more effective. We worked out the angle in which James would need to hold the knife so it wouldn’t be visible or at least not visible for a long time. We framed our shots with the stereotypical cinema bars as we thought this would match the vibe we were going for. I also directed the way James would walk. We tried some variations, in tempo and also the way he would carry himself he shouldn’t seem to nervous or to excited but still as if he is happy to do this as if it brings him joy. After we got a few takes sometimes with some variations of how the action would take place e.g. how often James knocks on the door or if the door would close or not. This was quiet easy to do because in order for the door to stay open after the victim opens it someone would need to stand behind the door hand hold it. When we then wanted the door closed they would simply let go. We rotated in three decisions one person would kneel behind the camera and operate the camera the other tow of us would either hold the mic or deal with the door. After we got the basics we tried something that we had in mind from the start. It was a hand. healed take that would show the killer walking towards the house (downwards from his knees). We then moved on and shoot some establishing shot of the house. We filmed from a lower angle how James would approach the house stop and go closer. the low angle was supposed to make him seem more epic. I placed a rock on the ground as a marker so James would know where to stand that way the framing would work and we wouldn’t need to adjust the focus. Finally, we did some takes of James walking and experimented with some pans and tilts. 

 

 

At approximately 11:20 am we drove to ST. Holmberry to film some shots of James traveling and his encounter with a dog. We filmed our first shot at what we thought empty village street. But cars wouldn’t stop passing by this was especially uncomfortable for James as he was standing in a bloody apron with a knife alone in the middle of the street, although we advised him to fooled his apron and hide the knife while were not filming this wasn’t always possible because sometimes cars passed by while we were shooting or right before. But James was always really polite to the people and we all copied this welcoming energy when the people passed by that we were standing behind a huge camera and tripod probably also helped that our present wasn’t alarming. In our first take James walked the down the street and near the end made a turn to the left. We decided that this didn’t seem right so we told him to start moving in a diagonal line. During the next take a stood behind the camera and gave him hand signs how he was supposed to move. After that the best actor in our sequence arrived on set. Our media teacher’s dog. After everyone was adored the dog for a bit we started setting up the camera Bert and I were in difference about how we should set up the wide shot. We were filming at a street were on one side was a tall hedge and on the other side were some cars. I wanted to place the camera in the middle of the road as I thought that that way the shot composition would be more interesting. Bert believed that the shot would look be better if we were only to see the green as it would highlight the quietness of the village. We asked our media teacher who agreed that the shoot in centre of the street would offer a more interesting shot. While James and Tom who played the dog walker acted out their scene we tried to remember where they were stopping for continuity so when we later on shoot medium and close ups they would stop at the same spot. Another thing I learned today was to shoot as littles as possible with dogs. While they are incredibly happy and initially raise the happiness level of everyone at set they are not great at upholding content unity. For minutes straight we tried to shoot a close up of the dog jumping up on James. 

 

After lunch back at school we picked up another Tom the actor who is portraying the priest. When the day started, we didn’t know he was going to play him but he was free and happy to do it so we were really excited. When we arrived in the church, and he put on his costume we couldn’t believe how well he looked in his costume. I looked at the practical lighting in the church and the location in general and placed Clare the actress who portraited the villager on a seat next to the corridor. I started out telling tom to stand in one of the rows and to Clare’s left so she could easily move but the framing felt odd because why wouldn’t the priest stand in the corridor so we placed him in the corridor and a bit further down the back so Clare could easily stand-up greet James and leave. On set we worked shop the dialogue while I had written some backup lines I wanted the actors to be able to free to improvise this way I hoped their dialogue would suit them better and it did! They came up with some hilarious lines and were able to riff. I then talked to them, and we shortened the dialogue as this was supposed to be a brief conversation. After the wide shot we moved on to some mid shots and close ups. For Clare’s closeup I wanted her to talk to Tom about a hideous sin she had committed. While we are most likely not going to use this either way I think it helped both of them understand the situation they’re characters are in better. I was constantly worried about the 180 degree rule but my teammates and our media teacher ensured me that we were okay. We then moved on and set up the camera to shoot the murders conversion. Originally planned to have James kneel down Infront of the alter but. it was to far away. So we decided to scrap the kneeling bit and they would just stand further down the church this would also demonstrate a stronger conception between the characters. This turned out to be a hard scene to shoot. Because someone had released the giggles. First Tom who didn’t even know that he is going to be in this video and who is not an actor needed to memories the lines and always switched certain parts. Important to remember is even when he switched a line to always keep going. After both of them new their lines I talked to them about the pronunciation of the words they were going to say and which parts they should stress in order to match the feel of the scene. This and of course working with the dog was the most fun part of the day for me as work shopping the dialogue and talking to the actors about their characters and how these would act allowed me to really be creative. This was also the first time we needed additional lighting earlier we shot outside and the natural lighting worked great, the practical lights in the middle of the church also worked well but now as we were further back we need to add some ligth. We added some soft orange light which was not intense (thereby simulating the practical lights in the church) because this area was nearly completely dark in the previous wide shots. We also added a steal collared back light from the left (simulating the light coming from a widow) which would outline the actors silluett. This light setup also resulted in one side being filled with shadows. This added to the mysterious and dark feel of the scene. In order to finish all the scenes with the actors we filmed James walking into/ towards the church. We did tow variations one where James would come from the street and another one where he would immerse from the graveyard. We had one more idea with James so we went back into the church placed the camera on the ground and tilt it a bit upwards this way James would seem really powerful. We filmed how James enters the church and the idea was that you would only see his sluett because the light from outside would be nearly the only source of light. We were nearly finished so we went outside down to hill in order to film an establishing shot of the church we off course needed to adapt the apprature and tried a few different camera movement. We tried out some different movements and then we could finally say:  

The key learnings of this week and a review of the test shoot

 

The final countdown!

 On Monday is our shoot day this means that we had to sort out every remaining problem. I talked to nearly all of the cast again making sure that everyone is on the same page. The person we wanted as the priest wasn’t available, so our media teacher Adam is going to play the priest. We discussed the sequence and the action list one last time so we all know what we need to shoot on Monday. Bert pitched the idea of the killer listening to music on his headphones after he kill his first victim. With this he wanted to go for a Guardians of the galaxy feeling which Pablo and I agreed would suit our project really well.  Another good thing is about this is that later on in the edit we can simply change the music and create a totally different atmosphere. Bert and I also  checked out the Church location on Google maps we looked for nearby locations were we could film shoots of the walking to the church.

Next up were our props the fake blood arrived as well as the apron. We decided to pick the mid-sized prop knife from the theatre department as we believed that it would look the best. We originally planned to use a prop knife only for a few shots and use an actual knife for things like close ups. Our media teacher pointed out the danger of bringing a object like this on set if its not completely necessary therefore we tried to scratched as many shots with the knife close up which will hopefully allow use to use the prop knife without it ruining the atmosphere. The prop knife just got a new paint of coat and the handle wasn’t completely finished it still had a golden base coat. The apron featured quiet prominently a  logo. I asked a friend who dose art as a level to hide the logo and add a black coat of paint to the knife which see luckily agreed on! We also did a little test shoot of the murder scnce. This turned out to be very helpful as it pointed out the difficulties of this shot and how we don’t want it to look we were also able to work on specific ideas for the framing and instantly test them. 

 

Here is the in my opinion best take we did:

Meeting 23rd of February- Props, casting and costumes

 Today was the first meeting in person in 1 and ½ weeks. We discussed the timetable, the cast and costume. We thought of alterative jobs for the murderer, but in the end stetted again on him being a butcher. Bert wanted to confirm Simon as the Priest but up until now this wasn’t possible so we agreed if Simon wasn’t able to do the shoot, Adam our media teacher would,  who currently is supposed to play a friendly villager is going to play the priest while someone on set will play the friendly villager. We then went to the theatre department to look at knife props. 

 

All of them look obviously fake so we decided to use a real knife in most parts of the sequence but during the scene where the butcher stabs the first victim, we would use one of the prop knifes.

 

I also ordered a apron so we could. soak it  in fake blood on the shoot day. We looked at multiple aprons but then we decided to buy a light beige apron as this would make it seem more handmade and used which would fit into the scenery of a village.