First day of filming - Take 2

Today was our second attempt at filming the scenes we previously planned to do but failed. Thankfully this time, we did not encounter any problems or difficulties like we did in the first day. 

We were able to gather up all the actresses taking part in the scenes and collect the equipment quickly and easily. In addition, setting up the camera onto the tripod was not a problem since I was able to ask one of my teachers,once again, to demonstrate how to fix the camera onto the tripod as well as how to tighten the screw in order to have more control over panning the camera.

However in order to avoid continuity issues further into the production of our film, we had to ensure that we did not film outside since it was raining and our film was not set in the rain. But at the same time we needed to show that it was daytime. So we decided to film near the window but without focusing onto it so that it would be blurry and prevent the rain from being seen.

Despite this issue being prevented, we still needed to deal with another issue which was that one of the laps from one of the rooms we were filming in stopped working.Unfortunately since we didn't expect this, we didn't bring any lighting equipment. Thankfully I had the idea of using a desklap to light up the room, which luckily was enough.

Creating the Newspaper

The newspaper for the opening scene of my film, is a very important aspect of the story, since it allows the film to follow the Enigma code theory and capture the viewers' interest right from the start. In order for this to work it is important that we create a realistic looking newspaper article, which is why we have used this website to create it: http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

 When writting the article, we found that it would be best if we each wrote half of the story.This way we would both have contributed to making the newspaper.

I wrote the first part:

Three teenagers have been found dead after allegedly watching a homemade horror film. Witnesses claim that all three victims had previously received a DVD from an anonymous source.

In the process of creating the newspaper

“It’s not just video games anymore, people have now began to turn film fiction into reality”- Ms Begum, 37, expressed her suspicious over the motive behind the murder of her daughter.”It’s too early into the investigation process to determine whether these murders are closely linked to the Hollywood film “The Ring”- Police officer Paul.

And my partner Anika wrote the second part:

Chris Taiwan, Kevin Reed and Amber Begum´s body was found at the local cemetery. There were no traces of blood and therefore, it is still unrevealed how the deaths had occurred. The three teenagers were known to be “close friends” said a friend who knew them all. “They would always hang out together and have good jokes...”

Family members have been constantly asking for reasoning for their children´s death however, it seems like the truth behind this death still remains unknown...

Me editing the images onto the newspaper.

The newspaper without the photographs

 Initinally the newspaper had no images, because this website doesn't allow us to add any when creating the article.However the most important part in this case, isn't the writting but the photos of the victims which will allow our audience to recognise them when Rebecca begins to watch the DVD and notice that something isn't quite right about them being in that DVD. So we had to place the photos of the actors on top of Anika's part of the article, since by placing it there,the article would still make sense to those who try to read it.

After finally finishing the newspaper article, we printed it out and clued it on top of a real newspaper, so that it would look more realistic.

The final newspaper

Email to Our Location's Caretaker

The email to the caretaker

response from caretaker

We decided to email the caretaker of one of our filming locations, in order to clarify whether he would allow the footage of the cemetery park to be posted on Youtube for educational purposes or not. We did this in order to prevent any drawbacks in the filming process. We needed to know whether Youtube would be an issues or not, so that we could start looking for other possible locations to film in. Luckly he replied back quickly and with good news, we will indeed be able to share it on Youtube without any problems, which means that it will not be necessary to look for other locations to film our movie in.

Our first attempt at filming.

one of our classmates helping
 with the equipment

Yesterday on December the 6th, was our first day filming Live Evil. However things did not turn out as we planned. We faced a number of issues, the first involved gathering all of our actors (who were in a different location from us because of our lesson timetable) and collecting the equipment from the school. The second issue was transporting all the equipment to our location which is my house. Despite our actors helping us carry the equipment, the journey was still slow because of the cold weather. This caused us to think about how we could get the equipment to our location faster next time, especially since we might not always have our actors with us, since in some cases we might agree to meet up at the location rather then walk to it together.When this does happen a possible solution would be to ask some of our fellow classmates if they would like to help us carry the equipment.

The last two issues were the ones that affect our plans the most. Firstly we had problems with setting up the equipment, we were not able to fix the camera firmly onto the tripod which caused it to be wobbly. This led us to decided that it would not be worth filming anything as we would not be able to have steady shots and also made us realise that in the previous camera sessions we learned the hard technique and camera settings but not the basics such as placing the camera on the tripod, viewing the footage we had taken etc.
An additional issue that led us to this decision of cancelling the filming, was that the scene we planned to film required daylight, however since we took so much time travelling to our location and setting up the equipment, it had already become night-time which meant that we could no longer film that scene.

For that same reason we had to call our teacher and ask for his permission for the equipment to remain in my house overnight since it would be quite risky to walk around at night with expensive equipment. Our teacher agreed with the condition that I would hand it in to the office first thing next morning.


Next morning I found that it was raining and I had nobody to help me carry all the equipment back to school. The solution I found for this problem was to hire a cab to take me to school. By doing this I could make sure that the equipment would not be damaged and that I would not be late for my lesson.

Equipment List

Propp's Character Theory

Live Evil carries two of the seven characters types identified by the Propp, the first is The Hero who in this case is Rebbeca who the story revolves around, and is the character which we as an audience know most about. She is also the only survivor who manages gets into direct conflict with the antagonist (The Villain) and at the end fulfill's her quest which in this case was to save her own life. The antagonist is always wearing darker colours and his face always remains hidden behind a mask.
However he fails to include marginal characters, which in my films case is the mother. In Live Evil the mother is almost a character however she still makes a significant contribution to the film's storyline, since she allows the story to continue when she accidently sits on top of the remote control making the film continue to play.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Trying Out Method 2

After deciding as a team, on using the second method,I tried to look for monster hands in halloween costume stores. Unfortunately I couldn't find any that looked convincing or that matched the image we already had in mind of what it should look like.
So I decided to buy gloves just to see whether the method would work or not.



This was the end result. Overall the second method would have worked just fine if we had the right gloves since the wires inside allowed the glove to remain in the needed shape.

Creating Special Effects

Live Evil is a low budget film, which means that we don't have access to the same professional special effects equipment as major film companies have such as Warner Brothers .This makes it inevitable that we are required to work with what we have and improvise. Especially since one of the scenes in our movie requires some kind of effect in order for it to look realistic since it contains aspects of the supernatural. This scene involves the main character's foot (Rebecca Lucky) being grabbed by a dissolved/creepy looking hand, which emerges from underground.

These are the two possible methods I have come up with, that could make this scene work:
Method Number 1:

e.g Transparent acrylic cubes

Method number 1

-The first method involves making a box made out of see-through acrylic. The box would include a hole at the bottom where the character playing the supernatural being would put their hand through. The box would not have a lid, instead it would be filled with soil from the location. Once the creature's hand can be clearly seen from the top of the box, the camera would then shoot the scene from the same level as the box allowing only the top to be seen, not it's side.

 Method Number 2:

Method number 2

-The second method involves buying an already made monster glove (which would be very easy to find during Halloween season). I would then create a structure out of wire or wire mesh that resembles the human hand.This would then be placed inside the glove. Once this wire structure is already inside the glove, I would then place the glove and shape it around the ankle of the Rebecca character, making it look as if there is a hand inside the glove grabbing her ankle. The bottom of the glove would then be buried into the ground to give the impression that the hand is emerging from underground.

Both methods can be easily done, since as an Art and Product Design student I have access to the materials and equipment needed. However despite the making process not being too difficult the first method is still quite hard to put into process since various issues may arise during filming, such as the edges of the box being seen as well as the fact that we will need to pay extra detail to the camera angle and shot  in order to ensure that the hand still looks as if it is still at ground level. Overall we have decided that the second method would be more efficient since it is more practical and convenient.

Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London

Today me and the rest of my Media class were fortunate to visit the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London and have and insight into the making of Harry Potter. There we were able to interact and take pictures with various props from the film such as the flying vehicles and even try the fictional drink "Butterbeer".We also had the chance to enter the famous assemly hall from the film where various crops were displayed as well as the clothing worn by the actors in the film, here we were told that the flooring actually used the same stone floors used in castles rather than other materials because it was long lasting, since the that particular set needed to last 8 films and endure the large amount of people walking on it during those years.

 One of the most exciting aspects of the visit, was the fact that we had a chance to dress up like the characters in the film, get on a broom and have professional looking photo of us taken using green screens which placed us in various different locations in the film by changing the background.

 However the department that caught my attention the most was the art department. It was an amazing experience to see how much detail they placed on every architectual model for every different building and location for the film in order for it to enhance the realism of the story especially the large scale model of Hogwarts. Not only models of the buildings but also the different character models created, each with its own characteristic which portrayed each characters own personality making these fictional creatures look realistic and come to life.

Making of the Storyboard

Anika drawing the shots.

Me writing the type of sound and 
camera angle used in the shot.

Since making a storyboard requires a lot of time as it involves drawing each individual shot and identifying the sounds and camera techniques used, we have decided to split the scenes between us. I volunteered to do scene 1,2 and 5 and my partner Anika held the responsibility of creating  the story boards for scenes 3 and 4.

This is one of the pages I drew for our film, before writing the sounds and camera shots within each frame.

The Hand-Held Technique

Pros:
- Has a greater impact of realism on audience since it places the audience in the shoes of the characters making them feel more involved and consequently insecure and helpless especially during the scenes that are not filmed clearly because they are blurred or shaky. This causes the audience be able to relate better with the characters feeling in the movie and share a mutual fear of the unknown.
- Captures the attention of the audience because this technique of cinematography offers a new and more creative way of presenting and telling a story to the audience which is different to how films were before 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Cloverfield'.
- Helped increase the audience of the horror film genre. Films such as Rec allowed the genre to be less predictable and turned aspects of everyday life into an exciting horror experience. Similarly the simplicity of films such as 'Paranormal activity' allowed the experience of cinema goers to reach a level where they questioned whether what happened in the film was true or not.
Cons:
Source 1

LOCATION CONTRACT: Customized

Location contract customised from mseabarbosa

ACTORS CONTRACT: Customized

Actors contract from mseabarbosa

LOCATION CONTRACT: Draft

Basic Location agreement between pandora pictures and the cemetery park from mseabarbosa

ACTORS CONTRACT: Draft

Basic Actors contract from mseabarbosa

Live Evil: The Final Script

This is the final film script we did with a new ending and opening.

4D Technology

After the 3D the film industry is now focusing on how to enhance the film experience for cinemagoers, by doing this they are now developing a new type of technology 4D.Video on 4D technology in 2010

4D causes the images to seem like they are coming out of the screen and make them appear to be moving inside the space in the room, this is because of the long and round screens that make the images come out of one screen and enter another.
Another way 4D technology works is by having especially adapted seat which move from side to side, shake and lift up, following the movements of the action on screen such as a car crash.
Recently the new Spy Kids has used an element of 4d technology, scratch cards where the audience was told on the screen which number to scratch and then they had to smell the card which was suppose to smell the same way as the food on the screen.
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2013164/4-D-cinema-Films-leave-feeling-damp-sick-smells-punched.html

Use of sound in my film

Like in the short clip 'On the Ice' I will amplify the natural sounds of nature in the cemetery  scenes to emphasize the idea that the main character is isolated, which is why sounds we wouldn't normally hear or pay much attention to such as the wind, leaves rustling and heart beating can be heard clearly. This conforms to one of the conventions of horror films and produces a tense atmosphere for the audience who anticipate what is going to happen.

LOCATION: Visiting the two Cemeteries Nearby.

Today me and my partner Anika decided to visit both of the cemeteries around our area, in order to see which one of them was most suitable for our movie.

The first cemetery is the one in the church next to our 6th form building.

Cemetery 1 - slideshow

Pros:
- The structure of the church looks very old which helps to create an eerie atmosphere in the cemetery. This means that if we need a creepy looking abandoned building in our film we can use this to create the effect.

Cons:
-This cemetery is very small since its for the church and there isn't many trees around. This causes it to be very hard to shoot in the cemetery without getting the buildings surrounding the graveyard in the shot.
-The cemetery is near a road where cars go by frequently. This may result in our microphone picking up the sound of cars which we don't want since we want it to seem as if Rebecca is lost in the middle of nowhere, where not even cars can be heard.
-Since there is a church in this cemetery, there are many cars that are frequently parked here. However our film is located in a deserted location so we will need to try and film when there are no cars around.

The second cemetery is the Tower Hamlets cemetery park.

Cemetery 2 - slideshow

Pros:
- The cemetery park covers a very large area which provides us with more choices of possible filming locations within the cemetery.
-There is a lot of vegetation throughout the cemetery which helps to camouflage the buildings surrounding it, creating this idea of being in the middle of nowhere, isolated, which would be very effective in my film.
-There are various old, broken, fallen and moldy tomb stones scattered around the cemetery since it is a very old place. This helps to create an eerie atmosphere without the need of using a smoke machine, which provides the film with an ideal scary filming location.

Cons:
-There are a lot of hidden holes in the ground throughout the cemetery. This might mean that in order to preserve the safety of the actors in my film, it will be better for the filming to take place only in the trails rather then in the grassy areas, since the holes and old opened and broken tombs are camouflaged.
-The cemetery park is very large and some areas are almost deserted. This means that we should try to film when it is still day time and in  places where there is more people around, in order to prevent any of our film crew from being put in a situation of risk.

Overall we have decided to film our movie in the Tower Hamlets cemetery park because it is a more appropriate location for our movie to take place. In this visit we also had a chance to talk with the caretaker who gave us the following leaflet with his contact details in case we need to ask him anything.

3D Technology

Stereoscope: The main concept behind 3D technology relies on the fact that our eyes  are a certain width apart and because of this difference, we are able to see two images at the same time, which are identical with some alterations.Our brain is able to discover these differences and synch both of them together using geometry and maths, creating the 3D effect.

 The anaglyph glasses makes use of this concept by giving a different colour for each eye(blue and red), thus making them have a different perspective of the film. In a film theatre, two different coloured images are projected onto the screen and the different coloured lenses filter the images allowing a different image to enter each eye. However a problem with using this kind of glasses was that the quality of the images were very poor since it didn't allow a variety of colours since colour was already being used for separation. It also gave the images a ´ghost´ effect by combining them together.
An additional problem with the technology was that when 3D was first launched many people complained about feeling dizzy or straining their eyes to watch the films.

 Polarized glasses are now more commonly used, this technique takes advantage of the fact that light can be polarized. It does this by projecting two different images on the screen which have different orientations, one is vertical and the other horizontal. This corresponds to the lenses on the glasses which also share different orientations, this allows a different image to be seen by a different eye because the eye which has a lens with a vertical orientation will see only the image with the horizontal orientation and vice versa. However this technique also has problems, the colour and 3D effect of the film can be ruined if the person watching moves their head, this is because it distorts how the waves enter the eyes. On the other hand a solution to this problem has been found through the use of projectors who have a clockwise and a anticlockwise spin, this images correspond to the different lenses on the glasses which separate the images, this is called rotational polarity.

This video shows that not everyone enjoys 3D movies despite the majority of new films being released are now in 3D.

Source 1 Source 2

Live Evil: New Ending

First Draft Version:
EXTERIOR- CEMTERY- NIGHT

Rebecca gets lost and begins to hear weird sounds as she walk forwards — a trailing, Dolly zoom. The camera does a 360 degree point of view, wide shot of Rebecca. This then cuts to a point of view pan, wide shot. The camera then zooms on to her feet where we see a dissolved hand grab her ankle. She screams and the camera rapidly zooms out into a bird’s eye view shot. After her scream can no longer be heard the camera then slowly zooms back into the soil to show that it has been meddled with, and indicate that she has been pulled inside.

Updated Version:

Exterior: CEMTERY - NIGHT

Rebecca gets lost and begins to hear weird sounds as she walk forwards — a trailing, Dolly zoom. The camera does a 360 degree point of view, wide shot of Rebecca. This then cuts to a point of view pan, slanted wide shot. The camera then zooms on to her feet where we see a dissolved hand grab her ankle. 

 MONTAGE- (film and cemetery)

She struggles to find something to hold onto, in order to prevent herself from being dragged into the soil. This is shown from different shots that vary from a high angle shot of her on the floor to an extreme close up of her scared and desperate facial expression. Cut- in of her hands reaching out for something to grab are also used.

“Flashback”

The camera’s point of view shows Rebecca escaping from the hands grip by kicking villain and gets up; she grabs the camera and runs- shown through handheld camera

“Back to present”

Rebecca breaks free using the same means as she did in the movie — shown through an extreme close up of her feet. She then gets up and begins to run, this is shown through a dolly zoom. She then bumps onto the caretaker who grabs her arms in order to prevent her from leaving the cemetery — shown through two-shot which cuts to a high angle point of view shot of the caretaker. An extreme close up shot of the caretaker’s hands is used to show him suddenly loosening his grip on her arm, this cut to an extreme close up shot of his shocked expression followed by a cut in of his feet where we can see the dissolved hand grab his foot. The screen then fades to black.