Film Title.

Film title

 

In toady's lesson, Jacob and Shannon were thinking of a font we could use for our film title. As we were thinking, we realised that 'Bella' may not fit the genre. Although we knew there was a particular thought and reason behind it, the audience wouldn't know this. We continued to do more research and all agreed on the name 'Proliferation'. This word in a synonym for the word spread, more in terms of virus and disease.

So we went on the website 'Dafont' and began to look for some fonts.

http://www.dafont.com/

 

Our first choice was a thin, eroded font called 'Birth Of A Hero', 'Scorched Earth' or 'Stone Bird'. We decided to use 'Stone Bird'..

 

After we saw the font in the software, we realised that it did not actually follow the conventions of a post apocalyptic film. From our research, we found out that post apocalyptic films typically use bold and plain fonts for their titles and their film titles. Eroded fonts are used more for physcological thrillers or horrors.

Here are some samples of our title in some plain and bold fonts..

50% Feedback.

50% Feedback

Today we decided to ask two groups of people a couple of questions to find out what they think of our opening so far. 

Here is their feedback..

Recce Shots.

Recce Shots 

The other day, Shannon went out and she took some photos of the building we were planning on using. We were going to show this shot to show the result of the pandemic and to show what happens to a place when something like that is happening. We also thought it would be a good idea to use it as a cut in/cut away shot. So it makes the viewer think that our opening it actually filmed inside that building.

 She then went and took some photos of the view of Sutton-In-Ashfield and Kirkby-In-Ashfield from the top of Pit Tip. This place gives us a perfect view of both the towns. We thought it would be a good establishing shot because it begins to give the viewer a rough idea of where the opening is set.



Experimenting With Fonts.

Experimenting with fonts.

 

Yesterday, we looked on the website http://www.dafont.com/ for some ideas for the font of our titles. Due to the conventions of our chosen genre, we decided we wanted a bold and plain font. When we look on this website, we thought a faded one would look good too, or one that is quite rough around the edges. These conventions are shown in the titles of films such as 'Pacific Rim' and 'Elysium'. The fonts used in post apocalyptic films and in pshycological thrillers are very similar so we may be going against our chosen genre slightly. We decided we like 'Scorched Earth' as this is the one that is suitable and we all like.



Titles Inspiration.

Titles inspiration

Here, is the title sequence on I Am Legend.
This is the film where are taking our inspiration from. On this one, the titles are on the side of buildings, shown in establishing shots of New York. Ours are on the establishing shots, showing the now derelict and abandoned Sutton-In-Ashfield/Kirkby-In-Ashfield. 
The font on this title sequence is bold, plain and white. We are taking inspiration from this and we are considering using bold font with parts faded and ripped. We are still considering whether to use white or black font but we will decide after doing more research into title sequences.
The news report is playing over the top of these establishing shots. Our news report it also playing over the top of our establishing shots. This way, the viewers can see what has happened and why it has happened.

Schedule.

Schedule

We have rough guidelines to follow with our work.

To begin with, we had a check list to complete http://abbieaspinallasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/to-do-list.html and they all had to be done for October half term.

Then we moved onto the planning, filming and editing. We have a check list to complete for this too. http://abbieaspinallasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/to-do-list.html The deadline for planning, filming and editing is 2nd December. However, it will help us if we do continue to research throughout.

I think my group is on the right lines. We have just under two weeks to complete everything and all we have left to do is the sound/music and the titles/production company. We think this is reasonable to expect to have these few things done before 2nd December. It seems filming early has benefited us greatly.

To Do List.

To do list

planning to do list

More PowerPoint presentations from Abbie

Here is a to do list with all the things i need to do to complete my planning. However, these tasks are only guidelines and i am hoping to exceed them.

Recording News Report.

Recording News Report

In todays lesson, we decided to record our news report. We are at the stage now where we are ready to add sound. News reports are a convention of the genre, so we want to include our own. We are doing so, in the style of an interview. We got these examples from the films 'I Am Legend', 'The Day After Tomorrow' and 'World War Z'.

News Report

View my previous blog post to see the script. 
http://abbieaspinallasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/script.html

Script.

Script

We dont have much dialogue in our opening is the news report. We are including this as a voice over, on top of the establishing shots. The report is in the form of an interview and lasts approximately 25 seconds. The news report is also a convention of the post apocalyptic genre. It is a vital part of our opening as it explains what caused the pandemic. 

Some Things We Thought Would Create A Good Effect.

Some things we thought would create a good effect.

Match On Action.

Match on action

Matching Action Example from Joshua Dempsey on Vimeo.

Here is a perfect example of match on action. It is when a character does something but when the action actually happens, a closer shot shows the action. This emphasises the action being performed. Using this technique could easily distract the viewer from slight continuity errors. The shots, although they could be filmed hours apart, create a nice flowing clip of action.

180 Degree Rule Example.

180 Degree rule

Here is a minute long example of the 180 degree rule. When the 180 degree rule is used, there is an imaginary line called an axis. The camera has to stay on one side of this axis at all times or they will be at risk of confusing the audience. The also use this rule in football too. Because if they placed the cameras on both sides, the audience would not know who is shooting in which goal because they would be constantly switching sides. It is also used for the movement of a character to show the line of movement. If the camera moved around, it would make the character look almost like theyre going in a zig-zag direction. 

Cut In/Cut Away.

Cut in/cut away

Here is a very short example of the shot. It shows the house from the outside, as an establishing shot. It then cuts to a shot inside the house. This is to show where the characters are and where the scene is set.
We thought it would be a good idea to use something like this in our opening. We thought a burnt down and abandoned building would make a good establishing shot but we also thought it would make a good setting. Seeing as we did not have access to inside the building, we thought our last establishing shot could be of the building but then cut to inside Jacob's garage. We were hoping this would make the audience think that the scene was inside the building. 
However, we have decided not to use this any more because we have since changed out storyboard. Now some of the opening is set outside and the audience would be able to clearly see that we were not actually inside the building.

Experimenting With Titles.

Experimenting with titles

During last lesson, i attempted to play around with the titles. We took some example establishing shots the first time we filmed so i was able to use them to create an example title sequence. We thought either white or black font would be best because this is a typical convention. We also chose plain font, this is because that is also a convention. We know what kind of font we want but we are yet to find it. Our inspiration for the title sequence, along with a few other things, comes from the film 'I Am Legend'. On I Am Legend, the titles are shown on establishing shots of New York, looking very derelict. 
These titles are nowhere near done and nowhere near what we imagine for our final title sequence, we did this purely to practise with the software. Because we did this, we should hopefully be more experienced and be faster in creating our final titles.

Bloopers.

Bloopers

Here, we have put together an edit of all our bloopers put together.

Evidence Of Everything While Filming.

Evidence of everything while filming

While we were filming, we thought it would be a good idea to video diary some of the things we did to prepare. Above, is a clip of all our diaries..
Below is a prezi explaining them..

Representation Of Social Groups.

Representation of social groups

The social groups we are trying to represent are teenagers and girls. We are representing there groups because our opening is from the point of view of a teenage girl. 

Teenagers are often stereotyped as 'thugs' and 'chavs' We are trying to contradict these stereotypes by portraying a strong, independent teenager, just minding her own business and surviving. They are seen as lazy kids who do nothing to help others but our character is battling through and coping on her own, We are hoping to show people that teenagers actually can step up and take responsibility when they need to.

Females are usually seen as being 'girly girls' and hate to get dirty. All they do is clean and don't do any manual labour. We are trying to show that females can also do the hard work, when they need to. A lot of people say that female wouldn't survive situations like this. That is exactly what we are going to contradict. We want to show that they can survive and they can cope.

Production Company.

Production Company

In lesson on Wednesday, we et out to create a name for our production company. After much thought and brainstorming, we decided we liked the name 'Iron Gate Productions'. We are thinking of trying to create an animation of a rusty iron gate, slowly opening and creaking, to reveal a shine of bright light. Then in the light would be a shadow of the production company name. This was Jacob's idea but we all agreed because we thought the mysteriousness would fit in nicely with the genre on film we are doing. 

This is an example of the kind of gates and spookiness we want our production company to look like. We are thinking of having the gates creak open, to reveal the name 'Iron Gate Productions'

Film Name.

Film Name

 

 

We had a discussion in lesson today, about the name of our film. We decided we wanted to give the film the same name as the character. Because we wanted to do this, we had to think of a suitable name. We though of some names but couldn't agree. So we looked on google translator and translated 'survivor' and 'live' into every single language. But, again, we did not find anything suitable. So i looked on name meanings. The word 'Bellator' that word means fighter and survivor in Latin. We all discussed it and agreed that we could shorten it to 'Bella' and justify it by that word and its meaning. We thought this was a fantastic idea because we have put great thought into the name and not just thought of something from the top of our heads. 
http://www.translate-latin.com/en/dictionary-latin-english/bellator

Costumes.

Costumes

I have previously done a post on costumes but since we decided to re-film, we have a few adjustments. So here is a short presentation on our decisions,

Costumes from absjadexx

Storyboard.

Storyboard

When we filmed on Saturday the 9th November, we realised we really needed to change some shots and add in some more action. We needed to improve the ending drastically, so we got together and created a new storyboard. Here is it... 

Our story had began the same, as we thought the original beginning has potential for some really good camera angles. We have changed the ending. She is still going to light the match and the fire but instead of the hand banging against the window, when she is lighting the fire, we will see the shadows of footsteps walk past the garage door. The character will then run towards the rifle and grab it. We are going to see the door open slightly from the inside, it will show the character fumbling to try and get the rifle ready to shoot and then quickly switch to a shot from outside, showing the character crouched down, pointing the rifle. A black screen is then shown, swapping to a shot of the character walking off into the distance, showing the thing she just killed, lay on the floor dead. We also show a few close ups and extreme close ups of the characters face, to show the expressions and panic she is feeling. All these shots and editing are going to be done fast paced, to show action and the panic the character is feeling. We have tried to end on a cliffhanger to create and enigma and suspension for the viewer. 

Problem.

Problem

We began to film on Saturday the 9th of November. We did this so early because if something was to go wrong, we would have enough time and weekends to film again. It was lucky we did this, because something did go wrong. I have my nails done every month but no one realised until after, that you can clearly see my nails in many shots. Clearly, after an apocalypse, you would not have perfectly painted, long nails. So we feel we need to film again. 

However, doing this gave us an advantage because while editing, we realised that there are other areas of our filming and camera work that can be improved. We also needed to add some action into our opening, as we realised it is rather boring as it is.We also now have an idea of how long our opening is going to be.

Lighting.

Lighting

 

Through our research, we have found that a convention of the post apocalyptic genre is dull lighting to create a grey, eerie effect. In Jacobs garage, he has a very weak light which hardly gives out any light at all but it does give us just enough to create the effect we are looking for. We thought that the lighting in there was enough for us and we didn't need any more or any less. The effect is created because where we are filming is actually at the other end of the garage, opposite to the light and it only just reaches where we are. We can also play around with lighting and colour grading when we are editing the clips. The software could help us improve our lighting and make it even duller without making it too dark. The dull lighting is a convention because it is one thing that helps create the mood of some sort of disaster.

 

This is the kind of lighting we are aiming for, it is dull and foggy but it is also just light enough to see what is happening.





Sound.

Sound

 

We do not know what sound or soundtracks we want to use yet. We have a script for our news broadcast which Jacob and Shannon will record soon. This is the only piece of sound we have that we are sure of so far but we do know our music will be dull and dark. From the research i have done, i can see that in majority of post-apocalyptic films have deep, eerie music so this is what kind we will use. Here are some examples of the music we would consider using that fit in with the conventions of post apocalyptic films..

 

http://www.jamendo.com/en/#list/a52810/bloody-winter?autoplay=1&_suid=138433486401809070395493979138
 

We think these would be appropriate to use over our titles because these will help portray the loneliness and emptiness we want to show in our opening and they also follow the conventions of our genre.

 

We have also been thinking about putting a voice over of me broadcasting on the radio, desperately reaching out to other survivors. I was watching I Am Legend last night when i saw this being done. I thought it would fit perfectly into our opening because it would explain a little more about what is happening and it would fill in the silence so it is not too quiet. There is not much diagetic sound in our opening so we feel it would be too quiet without some kind of voice over or music.

Our news report will also be played as a voice over, this will explain what has happened to the world explain the cause of it all. The cause of it will be a cure for the common cold, so we thought an interview style report would be best. By using an interview we can ask the questions everyone will be thinking and also answer them. This, along with the establishing shots, will set up the enigma for the opening.

The only other sound we will have is diagetic sound, perhaps of my footsteps. We have also thought about having wind blowing through the empty trees, and the branches rustling. We thought this would be a good idea because it would show how empty and quiet it is outside. The other diagetic sounds we will have will be the lighting of the match. We are unsure if we will use the actual sound or create the sound ourselves. We are going to have an experiment with sounds and see which sounds better. When the gun fires, we are obviously going to have to create that sound in some other way. This is because we are not capable and do not have the correct facilities to actually fire the gun and record the sound. The gun shot will actually be non diagetic because the actual firing of the gun will not be shown on screen.


Weather.

Weather

 

Seeing as we are filming again, we needed to check the weather again.. here is the forecast for Sunday 17th November.

We are planning on filming at 2pm and just carry on until we finish or until it gets too dark. As you can see, the weather is reasonably similar to the first time we filmed. At 2pm it will be cloudy and drizzly- just like last time. We found that this weather worked out good and created a nice effect for the lighting. Seeing as the main part of the opening is indoors, the weather isn't very important but while we are filming, we may as well get our establishing shots too and Sundays weather looks the perfect conditions for what we are planning.

Risk Assessment.

Risk Assessment

In our opening, we are using fire and filming around rifles and knives. These are all obviously very dangerous things so some precautions need to be in place to ensure our safety throughout.

• We should possibly have adult supervision when using fire, in case of emergency
• Always be careful and be aware of where the fire is at all times
• We should certainly not touch the fire or get too close
• We should also make sure we have water or a fire extinguisher near by to put out to fire, in case is spreads accidentally or gets out of control.
• The knives should be carried blade down and not waved around or used in a silly way.
• Seeing as we are not planning on actually shooting the rifle, it should be unloaded
• Even though it is unloaded, we should still not get in the way of the rifle
• It should always be handled with care

Recce Shots.

Recce shots of location

 Tonight, Toby went out and took some pictures of the locations we were thinking of using for our establishing shots. He timed it perfectly and managed to get an empty picture of the busy A38.                                       He also got another one 
                                    with just one car on the 
                                    road. 

We are using these locations because we want to portray a sense of emptiness and loneliness. We also want to show the audience how abandoned the place is after the pandemic.

These photos are of a usually busy road, the A38 and a field just to the side of the road. We thought these would be good because the road is usually busy and the field looks secluded.

Documentation Of Actor.

Documentation of actor

This is the documentation of the actor. I am the actor, i play the protagonist who is a 16 year old girl, she is a survivor of a virus pandemic. Our opening is about this girl and how she is surviving, the sacrifices she has to make and the struggle she is facing.
I, myself, am also a 16 year old girl, i am just an average teenager who is not a professional actor, so the acting in our opening will not be perfect but i agreed to give it my best shot.

Mise-en-scene And Props.

Mise-en-scene and props

Props

We have put a lot of thought into the props we are planning on using, we feel we have very good reasons for all of them. 
Petrol Canister x2
The petrol canisters are not used, they are just in the background. We thought this would be a good prop to use because the petrol stations would not still be up and running and they certainly would not still be pumping out petrol. Therefore she would need to gather as much as she can. Although the character is not actually old enough to drive.. there are no police left to deal out consequences!




Antiseptic Spray
The antiseptic spray is a prop placed at the side of the mattress, this is because, we thought that she would probably obtain a significant amount of injuries while living in the kind of situations she does. Therefore, antiseptic spray is a useful, realistic item that she would own.


Wellies
The wellies are used as part of the costume but at the beginning of the film, they are used as a prop around the mattress. We thought wellies would be most appropriate because they are dirty and uncomfortable but suitable for all weathers and conditions. She would also just have to make do with any footwear she could find. With the set up being in a garage, we thought wellies are a type of footwear commonly found in a garage.



Army Bag
The army bag is a good prop because it will hold all the items she requires when going out on a run to look for supplies and food. The bag also has secure adjustable straps and makes the bag easy to hold.





Mattress
We used a dirty, grubby mattress. We have used this to show the struggle for the character. In that kind of situation, the character would have to make do and learn to live with the kind of situations she faces each and everyday of her new life.




Shovel
The shovel is only briefly shown in one of the shots. We thought it would be a good prop to use because it shows that she has done her best to create weapons out of normal household items. She would need to do this to survive and it may not be so easy to get her hands on something like a gun.

Axe
The reason we used the axe is the same reason we used the shovel. It is just another spare weapon she has to hand, just in case anything was to go wrong. Also, a pile of logs are shown, these logs are what she uses to keep warm, obviously an axe would be needed to chop them in order to make them the correct size.

Water Bottle
The water bottle we thought would be a good idea, because she may have to collect water from any place she can. Clean water will be hard to come by in situations like she is in and she will need an easy way to carry her water without it being too heavy.






Rifle
Shannon's dad has this rifle, which only shoots pellets. She said we could probably borrow it, as long as her dad removes the pellets so no one got hurt. So, Shannon brought it on the day of filming and we thought it fit the type of props we needed for our genre. It fits in perfectly because a gun is obviously the best weapon in a post apocalyptic state. Finding bullets would be the only problem she would face.

Walking Boots
The walking boots were just another background prop, to show that she needs comfortable and suitable footwear. They are old, dirty and scruffy which shows they are old and have been through a lot. She would have done a lot of walking and the boots would have been worn a lot. This is because she would need to scout around for food and supplies and wellies would not be a suitable footwear for these tasks.

Knife x3
The knives are just a prop placed in the background, they are stabbed into a log. They are kept there because it would be very easy to access them if needed, they would also be available if they were needed quickly. They would be needed in a post apocalyptic lifestyle, along with any other weapons she could get her hands on.


Battery Powered Lamp
The battery powered lamp is a good prop that fits in perfectly with the genre. In a post apocalyptic film, this is because there will be no electric so the battery powered lamp would be the only source of light, other than natural lighting. But seeing as the place she is living in is very secluded, she will not get much natural lighting.

Newspaper
The newspaper was used as a useful prop, seeing as the fire and the bin are the characters only source of warmth, the newspaper will help light the fire. We thought it'd be reasonable seeing as she will need something to light the fire. It could also be used as part of the full film later on.



Log burner
The log burner is actually a metal bin, used for fires. Because it is ordinarily used for fires, it looks the part too. This plays a significant part in our opening, as it is used for survival. It is used for warmth and cooking food, both things vital for survival.





Leaflet
The leaflet plays a very large part of our opening. It explains most of the storyline. It is a leaflet we created to show our vaccine was for the common cold. It was placed strategically to remind the character of what cause this pandemic.




Matches
The matches also play a significant role in our opening. They supply the character with warmth and food, because without the matches, she would not be able to light the fire as easily as she can now. It also gives us the opportunity to use many different angles and introduce other items.

Kettle
The kettle is an old kettle which doesn't require any electric. It is done through gas or heat. The kettle would be a very easy thing to use on the fire, which is the characters only form of heat. The kettle would be one of the only ways to cook food and it is an appliance which would be realistic in a post apocalyptic state.

Filming Location.

Location

Today we went to Jacobs at 8:00-11:00am. We arranged this during the week as we thought if we film as early as possible, we have time to go back and film again if we needed to. I arrived at Jacobs and Jacob and Toby had set up Jacobs garage into a good set, with really relevant props. We filmed both inside and outside the garage, we thought Jacobs would be most appropriate because his house is quite isolated and his garage has been set up rather nicely. Shannon was late, so while we were waiting, we thought we could take some more establishing shots than we planned, just in case the other ones we planned didnt work out. We also made a few video diaries of funny things we did while filming, such as messing around or setting up.

Here are a few photos of the location once it has been set up properly;

 

Here are some props we used;

• Mattress 
• Shovel
• Axe
• Petrol Canister x2
• Wellies
• Antiseptic spray
• Water bottle
• Army bag
• Rifle
• Battery powered lamp

•  Knife x3
• Walking boots
• Kettle
• Leaflet
• Newspaper
• Log burner
• Matches

Obviously props play a major part of any film or film opening so we thought carefully about what props we are going to use and where we were going to place them. We 
                                                        thought back to our research and                                                               thought how their items were set                                                               out. 

When we thought back, we remembered that in the films we had researched, all their belongings were kept organised and close by. So we decided to set our out like that too.

Due to a lack of communication, we realised only last night that no one had picked up a leaflet, which is one of the main parts of the film. So Jacob saved the day and made one! 

Here is the finished product! 

We realise it is not perfect but the whole situation taught us that communication is vital in being successful.

In another blog, i will be explaining why we chose the props we did as there is a reason for every single one we used. 

Overall, i enjoyed filming, even though it was absolutely freezing cold!! Luckily, Jacobs mum made us a hot chocolate so that combined with the fire, we were able to keep reasonably warm!

We are starting editing on Monday so we can see what shots we missed, what we can add and what we can improve.

Real Audience And Film Pitch.

Real audience and film pitch



We asked two 17 year old girls, two 17 year old boys and a 20-30 year old woman, Shannon Hallam, Tom Cull, David Hurst, Michelle and Miss Harold, their opinion on post apocalyptic films. We also asked them what they think to our film. We did this to figure out who we should target our audience at. After hearing what they had to say, we have decided to aim our film at people aged 15+. These are the questions we asked;
1) Have you ever seen a post apocalyptic film?
2) Whats your favourite post apocalyptic film?
3) What would you expect to see from a post apocalyptic film?
4) What do you like about post apocalyptic films?
We then gave a short brief of our film
5) What do you think of our cliff hanger at the end of our opening?
6) Is there anything we could improve or add?
7) Would you watch it?
Their interviews are above, this is what they had to say ^^^.

 

I also created a small poll, i just wanted to enquire and see how many people had actually seen a film where the protagonist is a female. While I thought there were no films at all, it seems some people have seen a few. However, there are more people who havent seen any, than people who have. This told me that it was rare. So, we have chosen to join the few films who have gone opposite to the typical convention and do our opening from a females point of view.

 

 

Anematic.

Anematic

This is the anematic we created for our storyboard, it shows when angles/ shots we will use and how long they will be shown for.

It shows the audience what we are planning on doing and it also gives us a rough idea of how long each shot will last for and how long our opening will last for all together.

Costumes.

Costumes

This is our brief plan of the costumes the character will be wearing. We decided on wellies/walking boots because they would be the most suitable shoes in that situation. We then thought a big coat would be suitable and other characters in other films also wear big coats (the book of Eli). Scruffy jeans we got from the game 'The Last Of Us' because the little girl in that game wears cut, scruffy jeans. A white top, we thought this would be effective because it is just a top but the fact that it is white connotes innocence and the fact that it is slightly dirty implies that the girl has had to lose the innocence just to survive. Because the character is just a small girl, she would be rather innocent but she is also a survivor so the top will be slightly damaged, representing the girls personality. The bag will be an army bag, which we will borrow from Jacob's friend Laurence. The bag wont be dirty but it will be a large army bag, which will fit the conventions of costumes in post apocalyptic films.