Final Cut...

Finally, after many failed rendering attempts, we are proud to show our film Great Haseley, in Stunning 1080p quality.

In 1940's England in a small hamlet called Great Haseley something is not entirely right, two young men are both doing average tasks but there is something much more sinister happening in the small village than what first appears...

Some Stuff we did in Pre-Production

Today I was looking through the Photos on my phone and found these two pictures. I decided to upload them. They are scribbles on the board of some things...
Here is a pic of our story in note form...

We did this just before we left to go film on the first day of shooting so we would know exactly what to shoot.
Here is a pic of a list of jobs that are done in pre-production and production...

We did this in the editing stage of production, when were putting up the titles. I looked back at all of my opeing title research and we jotted down a list of jobs that we could put into our sequence.

Evaluation Q1

Here is the answer to Evaluation Q1, done by Myself and Jonny Smith, in the for of a slideshare...

Evaluation question 1 from tomandjonnyasmediaa

As well as doing these 6 points with Jonny I would loke to highlight other forms and conventions that we challenged during the production of the film 'Great Haseley', in the form of a Prezi...

Ratings! 12A Vs.15

I feel that these are the two age ratings (12A & 15)that we could put our film out for, Obviously 18 would be one we could put it up for, but it would limit our audience.

1. The BBFC's website guideline says that in a '12A' there maybe strong language (e.g. F*ck), but it must be infrequent - this, i do not feel is enough leeway, as we were planning on making the film with more swear words, and discrimination.

1.  The BBFC's website guideline says that in a '12A' there - can moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context (for example brief sight of bloody injury in a medical drama). This I don't feel is at all what we would be wanting to show, as we had hoped to have a large emphasis on brutal murders.

1. The BBFC's website guideline says that in a '15' there can be Strong Violence - Our film will have some scenes of 'Strong Violence' so this seems to fit.
2. The BBFC's website guideline says that in a '15' there can be Strong Language (e.g. F*ck) - Our film will most definatley include this 'Strong Language' so this is perfect. For Example - Holy Sh*t, what the F*ck was that noise?
3. The BBFC's website guideline says that in a '15' Strong verbal references to sex are permissible - it is possible that in our film this will be the case. In the context of two friends or drunk people being boisterous.
4. The BBFC's website guideline says that in a '15' that discriminatory language or behaviour is allowed to be shown - This is also perfect as there will be discrimination present in our film given the time period. For Example - Those German Nazi B*stards.

So in conclusion I feel that rating our film at '15' would be ideal as it allows us to do all the things above and yet gets the film out to a large audience. So it is like the perfect mid point between rating it '12A', as that gives the views, and '18', as that gives the gore etc.

Evaluation Q2

Here is my answer to evaluation question 2, in the form of a Prezi...

Evaluation Q3

Here is my answer to evaluation question 3, in the form of a Prezi...

Evaluation Q4

Here is my answer to evaluation question 4, in the form of a Prezi...




 

Evaluation Q5

Here is my answer to evaluation question 5, in the form of a Prezi...

Evaluation Q6

Here is my answer to evaluation question 6, in the form of Scribd...

Q6 by tomspratley

And here is a BreakDown of sony vegas in the form of a scribd...

Evaluation Q7

Here is my answer to question 7 of the evaluations, in the form of a prezi....

Sound FX

This is how we got the sound FX for the head being smashed at the end of the clip!

Feedback

Today i finished editing the feedback video i have done for the rough cut... here it is!


 

In addition to this i asked more of my friends+brother, Parents and some Teachers the same sort of questions, after showing them the film.
The results are as follows:
Friends + Brother...
Pros!

• They liked the enigma at the end, I even got asked a couple of times why he actually did it.
• They liked our costumes and props, especially the bike.
• They said that the music (Vera Lynn) was 'really cool', and one person said 'It almost adds to the horror aspect'. This is some thing that I had not thought about but after considering it I Sort of agree now.
• They thought that the time period was a good place to be set as the society of the time was much more unstable. This is exactly  the reason we chose it so it is great that they picked up on that.
• When I asked my brother if he payed attention the whole way through he said yes because there is always something going on, and that something, seems to always be mysterious.

Cons!

• These we all similar to the ones that Oscar points out in the video above. All of the issues pointed out have been dealt with for the Final Cut.

Parents
Pros!

• They said most of the things said by my friends and Brother.
• They liked that fact that it was set around a church. They rightly pointed out that the church itself has creepy connotations.
• They liked how the lack of speech in the film made it much better and more mysterious. My mum said that it 'makes it seem as though there is a tension in the village and i don't know what it is, what is it?'.

Cons!

• These we all similar to the ones that Oscar points out in the video above. All of the issues pointed out have been dealt with for the Final Cut.

Teacher

When I showed our Film to Mr. Malins, one of the schools media teachers, he, to our delight, pointed out the Foreshadowing that we had implemented into our film. 

Conclusion:

After completing our research we sat down and discussed the issues that had been pointed out to us, we then jumped back onto Sony Vegas to edit. We ironed out all the issues that had been pointed out to us. Now that this is done I can Honestly say that I'm extremely pleased with the Final Cut.

Rough Cut

A couple of days ago we finished the rough cut of our film opening! Here it is...

There are some issues regarding the fact it was uploaded to you tube  as this meant that the video was lower in quality and the resolution changed....

I have completed an interview with on of my peers, in order to gain feedback! I shall upload this soon, please feel free to comment as this could help us in making some changes to improve the film!

I think that the final cut should be completed in the next couple of days, i shall upload it when it is available...

Editing - Video FX

Today during editing we decided to add some Video FX. The video FX we have added is a slight colour saturation, this drains the colour from the images, although not entirely...

Here is what it looks like on some of the test shots I took before shooting!

Before...                                                                    After....

                                                                                                                          

The difference is noticeable, and works just as well as putting something like a sepia effect on...  It gives the film and older more aged feel to it which is helps adds to the idea of the film being set in the 1940's and the colour drain adds to the effect that the village is depressing and dull and sleepy, this will help shock the audience when they see the murder at the end of the sequence.

When the action goes inside of the church the video effect will not be in place, this is because we feel that the videos lighting is perfect as it is!

Editing - Fonts

Today a member of my group, Jonny, put forward the idea of having the font type for the credits in the opening sequence to our film... The font type Jonny put forward was the classic typewriter, he also thought of putting the sound of the typewriter in over the top of the text...
Here is a pic of some typewriter text...

I like the idea i think that it promotes good continuity with the 1940's period, however i do not feel that the addition of the text sound over the top, as i feel that it will make the audio feel clustered. We shall implement the addition of typewriter font into our opening credits....

When we show the title of the film 'Great Haseley' we will want a big more bold text, this will make the name stand out and (dependent on the font's style) give the audience an opimous or creepy feeling...
I personally shall undergo some research into this feild, and will the following websites to aid me

• Dafont
• 1001 free fonts
• Oldfonts
• Fontspace

More on Editing

Today we got our media studies teacher, Mr. Milburn, to read out what is going to be a news report followed by a song. We chose Mr. Milburn because he was able to act out a voice that sounded like a voice one might have in th 1940's, and we felt that this would be beneficial to the movie!
Here is a picture of Mr. Milburn sitting looking at the script.... Enjoy!

....and also the video of him speaking...

Behind The Scenes

On Monday 4th, Ed and I were away from school on a Philosophy school trip to the houses of Parliament, and so Ollie and Jonny decided to go behind the scenes of where we had been filming to show you the real location, and to show what things we had to look for in order to maintain the continuity of a 1940's time setting.

The video of this event can be found below!

The Editing Begins

So today we started our editing of the film, we are in the process of creating a rough cut! This will be used to give you, the reader, the opportunity to see the film for the first time, and it will give us the opportunity to get some feedback from people, and change the edit to make it better...
Here is a picture of us all editing!

Final Day of Filming

I mentioned that i would be going on a holiday in a previous post, and now that i am back from said holiday we were able to complete the filming process. We have now finished all of our filming, obviously we may need to re-record some things (not necessarily) and this will take place in due cause. 

Here are some location shots of the church, which is where we concluded the filming...

And we can see some in action shot with Ollie and I acting, while Ed takes the camera....

Mood Board

Here is a Mood Board in Scribd for my film and the genre of the film...

Mood Board by

Risk Assessment

Oops, I forgot to upload my risk assessment... Here it is, we as  group did follow this while shooting, and  it allowed us to work smoothly as we knew what to do in a case of hazard (of which there where no real ones)...

The Coming Week

Next week is going to be school half term, in which I will be going on holiday, meaning that I will be unable to post our test shots and other related things until I return. When I do return you can expect there to be several posts concerning he above topics.

First Day on Set

Today was our first day on set, filming the movie 'Great Haseley'. We had our storyboard on set as well  so it went nice and smoothly. Below can be seen some pics of our filming, you can see Ed and I setting up the shot, and a mid action shot. There are also some pictures of Ollie and Jonny in costume with the bicycle.

Storyline Change

We have decided after doing some test shots that we should change our story,as it was difficult to introduce the villain.
The story has changed in the following was:

• The opening shots up to the pat where the two characters (caretaker, cyclist) meet.
• The cyclist will give the caretaker a letter.
• Then a man will come up and interrupt them (me), in order to get into the church.
• The caretaker and cyclist will look anxious as the man enters the church.
• The cyclist then grabs his bike and pegs it, out of the church yard.
• The caretaker stands for a while, contemplating.
• He then bends down and picks up his hammer, and takes a few breaths.
• He then walks into the church.
• At this point we may have a small montage type sequence of stain glass windows in the church.
• The caretaker will walk up behind the man , who will be praying.
• Then the man raises his hammer and brings it down on the head of the man.
• Before we see the contact, the clip cutts out to a cross and the title 'Great Haseley' comes up. (we will here the sound of the act in the background, which will actually be a melon being smashed up) 

Change in Shooting Location

As a group we review the current place we were aim to film at (Great Haseley), and decided to make a change to the our shooting location. This decision came down to the fact that the church we were aiming to film at was on a modern looking road (despite the houses looking old, which was a benefit) also there we logistical issues that would have meant one of the group members (Ed) would of had to make a 3hr car journey, something he didn't have the ability to do as his parents will have been on holiday over the time period we were shooting. We decided to put the location as our own school, Shiplake College. Shiplake is ideal, it has lots of old looking dirt tracks, an old church made of flint, that is not on a main road but is surrounded by a cemetery.
Ollie and I went out today to get some location shots of the area of the school grounds we shall be filming  in...  

There are many other locations around the school that we can shoot there are just a handful of the areaswe will be shooting at.

Shooting Schedule

Below in Scribd is the shooting scheduel that our group created, this may not be completely accurate to the storyboard.

Shooting Scheduel by

New Story Board

A few days ago i completed a section of the story boards (members of the group were assigned different scenes to draw out). I had to do from scene 2-3

Here are the ones i completed:

Linked below are the blogs of the other people that created story boards, so that you can see the whole plot:

• Jonny's Blog
• Ollie's Blog

Treatment writing

Below is a slide show of my treatment writing i created on Prezi, lined into the slide show is a video of my group presenting the video to my class.

The Ring Opening Sequences Review

The follow is a step by step review of the opening to the movie 'The Ring'. I watched the opening and chose these 8 stills to talk about.
You can find a video for the opening sequences here.

1. The establishing shot is a long shot of an old un-kempt house late at night. Only one light in the house is on, this whole scene creates a a Gothic feel. We can hear rain which adds to this feeling. We do also hear some characters talking at this point, which somewhat takes the feeling away as the topic of conversation is quite normal.
2. This shot  is a medium shot inside the house of two girls sitting at the end of a bed watch TV. At first the shot seems Gothic as the the lighting is very grimy and dull, the girls both have dark hair, also we can see flashes from the TV flickering over them and we can still faintly hear the rain pouring outside. However the Gothic feel seems to leave again when the dialogue starts back up.
3. This is a close up of one of the girls telling a creepy story to the other. This shot is made Gothic and scary once again through the lighting and the way the girl is very dark, with her hair and her clothes seeming pitch back. This time the dialogue doesn't save it from being scary, only making it more scary. This is very well done as it draws the audience in because they want to know what is going to happen to the girl who watched the tape. The girls begin to joke about the whole situation, but then the phone rings from somewhere in the house. This is adds to the fear and tension created before.
4. This is a long shot of the two girls (in the background) walking towards the phone (in the foreground) which is ringing loudly. This scene builds up a real sense of tension and fear, as the girls are walking slowly and with light steps, as though there is a killer in the house and if they make to much noise then the killer will strike. Also the fact all we hear is the sound of the phone ring creates a sense of mystery as the audience want to know what will happen when the girls answer it.
5. This is the same shot as the last but the girls have come to the phone and have answered it. The way dark haired girl answers the phone very cockily and then the way her face falls and she looks fearfully at the lighter haired girl while handing her the phone, builds up the tension very well, as it makes the audience feel that something to do with the creepy story told earlier is true. However once more the dialogue gets rid of this feeling and adds a sense of relief to both the girls and the audience (because it is only the girls mum).
6. This shot is a medium shot of a TV going static. This scene is made scary and brings back the tension lost in the previous scene. It is made creepy by the sound of the static and also the way the camera slowly moves round the door frame, as if the  camera is scared to wee whats on the other side.The audience want to know where the other girl has gone and they want to know why the TV is going static, because no-one touched it. 
7. This shot is an over the shoulder shot of the girl staring into the black screen of the un-plugged TV. This shot comes after a shot of the girl pulling the plug out of the wall, so when we come back to look at the screen we are anxious of what might be on it. This feeling is reflected by the girl through her heavy breathing and the way she is staring deep into the TV.
8. This final shot is a close up of the girls distraught  disfigured and agonized face as she looks at the TV in her room that is showing the tape. This scene very frightening and is made so through the high pitched noise that is played, the look on the girls face and the montage style of editing that is used, which shows an assortment of gruesome things in very quick succession and ends in a static screen. This makes the heart rate of the audience quicken as they become scared.

Overall this opening sequence uses screen play as the main source of setting the genre, in that the acting and what happens (i.e. the static and the girls fate) show off the the traits of horror more than anything, although that said the music plays a good part when there is static and also at the end. We don't get much info on the characters or the plot,but obviously we get an idea as to what the evil force of the film will be. The tone of the clip is very Gothic and tense, this is achieved through all that is discussed above.

Location of Film...

The group and I have decided on a location for the filming. The area was decided on the basis of easy accessibility, low evidence of modern things (the place looks old) and the area has an old church there.

Here is a Google Maps link to the location: Great Haseley

The reason that we picked is because it is the home town of Ollie (one of the group members) so he knew the area and that it would fit the period we are setting it in. I live in Marlow, which is a very modernized town, see it here on Google Maps and below...

So this for obvious reasons is not the right area for a 1940's period horror film. Great Haseley on the other had has an old authentic feel to it, which is perfect as the setting is essential for setting the time period and genre.

So I reckon that when combined with video effects, and with give away in the dialogue will be perfect for the  film.

How i feel its going so far...

So far i am confident with the work my group and I have put into this task. Below can be seen pictures of myself and Jonny working.


Today I interviewed another member of our group to ask him about the pre-production and production of our task so far...

Thanks for reading
Tom

Audience Research results

Recently my group and I carried out audience research through the website Survey Monkey. Here is a link to the results page of my survey, ClickMe!

Others in my group also carried out audience research, if you wish to see it go to their Blogger's

• Jonny's Blog
• Ollie's Blog

Early script for the Film

Shown below in scribd is a very early and low detailed pre-production script that is subject to change,in the final shoot.

As Media Script by tomspratley

The Woman in Black Opening Sequences Review

The follow is a step by step review of the opening to the movie 'Woman in Black'. I watched the opening and chose these 8 stills to talk about.
You can find a video for the opening sequences here.

1.  This is the establishing shot and show a teapot pretending to poor tea into teacups. This shot is instantaneously given a creep, out of the ordinary feel, this comes through the lighting, screenplay which is creepy when put with the other things as it makes a perfectly ordinary thing seem somewhat abnormal, also the music which is very much the abnormal thing, as it is the sound is one from a childish song that is played very slowly, when this is done it is often interpreted in this way.
2. This is a close up of a young child's hand lifting an empty cup to a dolls face. This is the first we see of a character in the scene, and the character is for some reason interpreted as scary, despite it being a child doing child like things. The design of the doll has sinister connotations to it, in the way that it is limp and so lifeless but is being given an empty cup to drink from.
3. Here we have a medium shot of three little girls having a tea party, this scene confirms to us what is going on in terms of the scene play. Normally this could be considered a perfectly ordinary scene, but given the connotations of the previous scenes and the music being played and the way that the footage is slowed down slightly, the scene feels unwelcome and unhappy. (even though the girls are smiling).
4. This is a medium  shot of the girls stopping what they are doing and staring in the direction of the camera. This is the first piece of screen play that makes the audience feel uneasy, as the movement in unison from all three characters is very unnatural, also the music takes a slightly darker turn with deeper instruments coming in, giving the feel that something truly is amiss.
5. This shot is a medium shot from the P.O.V of the little girls, who turned to face the window. This makes the audience uneasy as-well, because the do not have a clue as to why the girls are behaving like this as they went from being happy moments before to being gaunt faced and staring, the audience may also at this point make a link between there being three girls and three windows.
6. This close up shot comes from a small montage of shots showing the girls dropping everything  and standing up to walk to the window and in the mean time steeping on their dolls etc. This is creepy as it is just so odd that the girls are acting like this and that they are breaking their toys which made them so happy moments before. The audience does at this  point get the impression that the girls are acting not on their own accord (they're almost possessed)  in this scene, this comes from the screen play and the smudged echo that is heard when the girls break the toys, this sound effect gives the idea that the girls are being possessed as it makes it seem that they are not in control of the way they interpret the world.
7. This is a medium shot of the three girls jumping from the three windows. This is obviously a shocking scene, this comes through the swelling music and the sound of the mother of the girls scream of terror also the screen play connotes this as it is so unexpected but it does seem to go along with my previous point of the girls seeming to be possessed by some outer body, as this is most certainly not normal behavior  this creates mystery for the audience as they want to know who or what is making  the girls act in this way.
8. This is a long shot of the windows after the girls have jumped out of, the audience is also teased by seeing a shadowy figure standing to the right of the camera with a vale over its face. This is obviously the villain (the woman in black), but it isn't confirmed, only inferred.

Overall the scene  uses very traditional methods to display genre and time setting, in that it uses a good variety of the screen play, the lighting and the music, and i feel that this paid off very well as the scene is very scary and creepy. There is little information as to the plot or any characters, bar the villain, but we get little info on her. The tone of the clip is very dark and abnormal, it is made to be strange as discussed above.

My First Storyboard

Pictured below is a very early and low detailed pre-production story board that is subject to change.

1940's Research

As a group we have decided to set our main task in the 1940's, so in order to maintain continuity we must ensure that we have the same sort outfitting and props that would be present in said time. So I have done some independent research in order to gain further knowledge of how this can be achieved and maintained.



Here we see three men from that time, looking at their hair it is possible to see that the all have the same style. They all have slicked back hair that is well groomed and very need, they all also have rather short hair.

Here we can see that a prominent piece of clothing is the sweater, shirt and tie (or bow-tie). The incorporation of the pressed trousers, which also seems to be a common thing to have, could also be a good thing to do. We can also see that smoking either with a pipe or a role-up cigarette is very much the norm for most men of the 1940's.



In our film opening one of the characters will be using a bicycle, so we have to make sure thatthe bike we obtain and use in the film has the correct characteristics. The bicycles above are of the 1940's era and so we must make sure that we get a bike that is similar to this for when we shoot, whether we have to buy a really old bike of eBay or find a shop that we can rent one form.

We intend to have a radio podcast at the beginning  who we hope will play some music, so i researched popular English musicians of the 1940's. I found that Vera Lynn was a very popular artist, she was nicknamed the soldiers sweet heart. So we intend to play one of her songs, this we hope will do a good job in making the period obvious, above is one of Vera Lynn's classics We'll Meet Again.

Research of Film Opening Credits

As part of my film research I have viewed two film openings, Se7en and Silent Hill Revelation. I recorded on a time line what time credit was shown an what each credit said.I recorded the music type and thewhat the text looks like as well.

Music- Dark, Gothic, Rock Song
Text- White, Blocky, Slightly Distressed Look.

The is a link to both Opening sequences...
Silent Hill- Here
Se7en- Here


Thank you for reading,

Tom

DayBreakers Opening Sequence Review

The follow is a step by step review of the opening to the movie 'Ginger Snaps'. I watched the opening and chose these 8 stills to talk about.
You can find a video for the opening sequences here.

1. The establishing shot is a pan shot of dusk in which a bat swoops across the screen. Obviously a bat is a classic connotation of vampiric things. i think that the combination of dawn coming and a bat flying fast away from it is an effective way of setting the genre straight away. It almost does create a sense of mystery as the audience want to know what kind of world this is happening in.
2. Here we have an over the shoulder shot of a little girl who we know nothing about (except that she is writing something), the character is looking at a collage of pictures of herself and friends, with little flower lights all over the wall.. A slightly depressing tone is created, this comes around as the lighting in the room is very dark and gloomy and the lighting on the wall of collages is very bright with all the colours standing out. I feel that this makes it seem as though the girl is reflecting on happier times (the collage being these happier times).
3. This is a still medium shot of the girl placing the sheet of paper we saw her writing on nearer the beginning  This makes the audience curious of what this note is and what it symbolizes.  The note is made to seem important, as the lighting is very brightly directed towards it makes it seem like its something important. Also the audience don't know why she is leaving a note in the first place.
4. This long shot, down a dark mysterious corridor, shows the girl opening a door to a to a very bright exterior place. This image connotes many things, i believe that the most important connotation that comes from this is as follows; i seems as though that the place outside the building is in someway alien to the little girl. This comes as a result of the contrast lighting between indoor and outdoor, also the acting style of the girl is very slow and nervous, almost fear of what might happen.
5. This shot is a medium shot of the girl sitting slumped in the middle of what appears to be a driveway, the audience is drawn into look at the girl, because all the plants and foliage is being blown into the middle of the screen, also the focusing of the camera draws the eyes of the audience into the center as the the camera is focused on the girl and is bluring the surrounding slightly. The design of the set, what with having most things starting or ending down the center, which is obscured by the girl.
6. This shot is a close up shot of the girls face, this is the first time we actually see face in the flesh, one thing you could say is that she looks a lot older here than in the collage in the 2nd pic. This shot is made a bit creepy and eerie, this feeling is made by the complexion of the girl, who is very pale (more so than in the collage), also her eyes, they are a slightly golden colour, what makes this creepy is how they are the most colourful part of the whole frame, also the way she has a very wide eyed stare is rather odd and as such connotes some sort of paranormal thing going on.
7. This extreme close up of the sheet of paper comes in a montage of shots, showing different words. The words are very depressing, and connote the idea that the girl (who we know wrote it because we saw her do so), is unhappy with things.The words never 'grow up' are rather suspicious, by now the audiences suspects that the girl is a vampire, what  with the tone created, the girls eyes and complexion, the sighting of the bat and the lighting. I think that this just boosts the idea. Also at this point the music is starting to swell up and build, possibly a pointer to a big thing/ event coming up.
8. This is a medium shot of the girl being burned by the sunlight. This is the strongest indicator yet that the girl is a vampire, for starters she is burning in the sunlight (a commonly conceived weakness of vampires), and secondly because we can see her teeth, which are fang like. This shot is made disguising, through the graphic visual death of the girl, and the piercing scream that echos around.

Overall this scene uses many little hinters as to the genre the whole way through the scene, i feel this pays off every effectively. There is little to no information given away as to the plot or to any characters (The little girl has no role in  the main film). The tone of the clip is very depressing and reflective, caused by the screen play and the camera angles and lighting. The audience will be confused for most of it and not really understand what is going on throughout the sequence.