Film Classification

Foley Sound

Once we had imported the clips, we knew that for certain scenes, for example the warehouse that foley sound could be used to give the scene a bit more realism, so we tried a couple of different methods in order to create some atmospheric sounds. The sounds were recorded with the built-in mic from the camera and the recording application from an Iphone. Although some of the sounds we created may not be used in the final project, it was certainly a fun experience doing foley and sounds really can be created from the most unlikely sources.

Here, we decided to tap the red head light which gave off a metallic rattling sound like garage doors shutting

Rustling the air vent also produced an eerie quality which is good for creating atmospheric noise. 

Although the picture may not be that clear, Sam is closing some curtains and this also produces a similar sound to that of closing shutters, which could also be used in the warehouse scene. 

Editing

Editing is a fundamental element of the post-production process in filmmaking and is essential in keeping the viewer engrossed in their visual experience, particularly through the use of cuts and other continuity editing techniques, which have been previously mentioned in the preliminary task. Maintaining a good pace throughout a film is one of the most important elements to master and this is something which takes years of practice; knowing when to cut clips or when to use a transition.

This presentation introduces and explains the software used in order to edit our thriller film.

Music Update

After a while, I eventually received permission from the band "Breakdown of Sanity" to use one of their songs which i mentioned in my music research.

However, since the the editing process was already taking place, we decided that after having added daniel James' composition to the first bedroom scene that we preferred the more suspenseful cinematic music because it was almost in perfect sync to the on screen action, however this may yet be subject to change.

Design of Title sequence

When designing my group's title sequence for our thriller, it was important that we understood the conventions of a title sequence and the commonly used order that comes with it. After carrying out some in depth research into the origin of opening credits, I found out that in older movies, credits would normally appear on a blank, black screen with a very basic font and next to no animation involved; it was seen as something that had to be put in by definition. On top of this, there is also a common convention of the ordering of the credits with people like the director typically coming last and the producers coming first.

Nowadays, many directors like Christopher Nolan, the Coen Brothers etc. have chosen to not even include any credits or even the title sequence. Other directors use opening titles to great effect and have it deliberately tie in with the theme or event which takes place in the movie and this is personally something I wanted to emulate when making our title sequence. My inspiration for this idea mainly stems from looking at ARTOFTHETITLE.COM, where I did some research on Dawn of the Dead and was particularly drawn by the way the titles were animated like blood splatters.

With this in mind, I wanted to make our titles link in with one of the key themes of our film which is the use of technology and the modernity of social networking, as well as the negative connotations that come with it. I wanted to create a data glitch text which appeared on the screen in a very fragmented nature and this clearly ties in with the theme of social networking. The glitch also represents the darker side of the internet as you commonly associate glitches with viruses.



This title sequence will be used in the final piece and will be overlayed on top of the actual video footage and this is a choice made more because having a black screen wastes the amount of time we can have of actual footage. Had we not been restricted to 2 mins, I would have personally done the names on plain black because it makes the titles stand out more.

Risk Assessment

It is vitally important that when going to shoot on location, a risk assessment is carried out because as a  director, your producer would need to know that the place you are shooting in is safe and appropriate to film in. The risk assessment simply lists the potential hazards that could occur when on location and the measures that have been taken to ensure safety.
        

Final Production Logo

This is the final animated production. It appeared that my group members were happy with the logo so there was no need to try and design another one; instead I tweaked the animation, in particular adding motion blur to give a more professional look. Unfortunately, the quality isn't particularly good on youtube because it has been compressed but hopefully it will look better in the production.

Overall I'm quite happy with this logo and considering this is only my second time creating a intro like this, I think it came out pretty well.

Production Day 2

In terms of the final location for our warehouse, this changed because unfortunately we failed to get a reply from Shurguard. However this definitely worked in our favour because my group member Zach managed to arrange the new location in a car warehouse, which certainly helped boost the production value, the expensive cars made it seem a lot more professional. It also tied in with our story which we altered slightly in light of our location. The bully is from a very wealthy family and he posts on facebook a picture of his new car. Sean sees this as a way to lure him in to a trap so he goes over to the warehouse and threatens to damage the car. The climax takes place from here.

Regarding the filming on the day, we arrived at 10am and began to set up our scene, following close attention to the storyboard which another group member had drawn. Although we brought lighting along, we felt it wasn't that necessary. However in hindsight we thought it would have been a good idea to have turned off all the lights and just used the redhead. We filmed a variety of different shots in order to create a suspenseful ending to our opening, e.g. establishing shot, over-the-shoulder, longshot, POV etc.

My favourite shot in the film is the last one which I worked on, which is in the clip below. We tried using the dolly but unfortunately we couldn't get it low enough on the ground. Instead, we used our initiative and found a skateboard lying around and we used that to create our smooth tracking shot at the end.

Once we had recorded all the primary shots, we then filmed some extras with the time we had left. For example we asked the manager of the warehouse if we could film inside one of the Aston Martins which he happily agreed to. We even filmed an alternate ending and will decided which one to use when we begin editing in the coming days.

Music Choice

As previously established, Music plays a vital role in thrillers, so when deciding which soundtracks to use, you have to make sure it is appropriate for the film and works well with the on-screen action. The presentation below shows some of the steps of my individual research and the eventual conclusion that we came to as a group.

Initial Production Company creation

As mentioned in the previous post, we wanted to make our own company logo specifically for this film and with that we began brainstorming a host of different names, some included: cut-throat productions, ripper studios, Hitch studios, Late8Films. Eventually I came up with DarklightFilms because I though it sounded quite eerie and had a good idea for a logo.

In this area of the task, I feel as if this is a great time to utilise my experience with After Effects and a 3rd Party plugin called "Element 3d" by Video Copilot. Not only will I be able to design a professional looking logo but I can also animate as well as demonstrated in the video.

I will stress however that this is the very first design and animation and is very much subject to change. Firstly, if a better name comes up then I will happily re-design a new logo, or if we stick with this name then I will certainly be tweaking a few things to make the logo look better.

A brief explanation about the video, I first picked the Font I would be using and created my scene by creating a dark vignette, making the background dark but gave it a bit more depth. Then I went into 'Element' and created 3d versions of the texts and then began to animate them by using keyframes.

This is eventually what I finished up with; I added the lightbulb to match the name and a little optical flare on the lightbulb to give it a bit of life. 

Production Company research

In order to produce a film, it is important to have a production company on board in order to help give financial support as well as help get the film to market. I have done my own individual research into film companies to see which one would be most suited to our film. On top of this we are going to have my group member Zack's company, "SLIK studios" on board the project as a co-producer; I have re-coloured his logo to a reddish colour to fit the theme of our film.

We are also in the process of founding our own company logo specifically for the film, which I will be personally designing an animating with After Effects. This will leave us with 3 co-producers and as explained in this Presentation, we felt this was the best decision.