That's a Wrap :(

So planning is done, production is done, editing is done and i have come to the end of my 2.5 and 2.6 assignments. I have had a lot of fun doing this but to be honest, i am glad it is over. It is so much energy creating are short film. I am just so happy i got to do it with my best friend Erin. I think if i did it again i would have made a simpler plot, but its too late now. Fingers crossed for good grades...

Other Sounds

I want to create a more tense atmosphere in the scene where Tilly is trying to calm herself. So i am going to incorporate some interesting cinematography (donut pans & dutch angles) with a static wind noise and a heart beat that gets louder and louder until we reach ultimate tension and it burst out into the climactic point of our music.

Transitions

After looking through the transitions on Final Cut Pro i have decided that i really hate over the top or cheesy transitions. So i think that a simple and subtle fade and jump cuts will be all i use. This will build suspense and make the film more serous instead of cheesy and stupid.

Filter Coloring

I plan to use a filter over my footage to make the colors more intense and vibrant. I hope this will draw attention to major colors and create a feeling of unreality - similar to how Tilly feels in her paranoid state. This will hopefully make our color symbolism pop.

Music!!!!

To continue on with our intertextuality, i found that "Hello Zepp" - the theam tune from the original Saw film works very well with our film. It will create unsteady tension and it sounds cool! I want to have the music going through-out the film, stopping or fading down for dialogue or moments of tension.

Intertextuality

I thought it would be a cool idea for our film to contain some references to other horror or slasher films. The music that will be used is the theam song to the original SAW film, the graveyard in our film is called Myers Graveyard - after the killer, Michael Myers, from "Halloween". Our film is set in a quiet suburban are like "Halloween" and "Scream" and we used symbolic color like "The Shining".

Locations:

Filming will take place in four key locations in my local area:

Hillsborough Cemetery - We are filming in the older section of the cemetery with really old grave. It has this long gravel path that goes up the middle between these two raised banks that are both covered in old graves. there are no trees so the light is very bright. It looks haunting and creepy, the perfect place for the ghosts of our monsters victims to hang out in :) . As i said before the section we are using is old and no one ever really goes there so there wont be any foot traffic to worry about.

Little-John St - This street looks like your everyday suburban street, so it fits the setting very well. Also people from our school will know it and be able to identify with our film easily. The lighting in the street is nothing special but it will be featuring in a part of the film where the characters are more important. Traffic and pedestrians could be a problem but we will just have to deal with that.

Keith-Hay Cycle Track - This setting looks so good on camera because of its long path that stretches on into the distance and the contrasting bushed and fences on either side on the track. the lighting is vibrant and will be good for the earlier stages of our film. The path gets crowded during the afternoon due to the schools so we will have to time our filming for more quiet moments

West Park - This is another setting that may be well known to school members as it is local. It has long stretches of grassy bank that are perfect for running scenes and a alley way down the back which looks dark and gloomy. This place will be good for filming just as long as it is not when the kindergarten (which is in it) is open.

Now or Never

So i have many posts that i have written down that i have never got around to putting up. As the assignment is due tomorrow i guess now might be a good time...

Now or Never

So i have many posts that i have written down that i have never got around to putting up. As the assignment is due tomorrow i guess now might be a good time...

"Paranoia" - everything you will ever need to know

So now i am going to go through the entire production now that out filming is done and everything has gone to plan:
Our film opens with several shot types of a mysterouse ghostly girl in a graveyard, contrasted with many other frightening images such as abandoned playgrounds, blood and knives. Then the title of out film, "Paranoia" is displayed. This then fades into a newspaper clipping about the mysterious death of local girl, Eliza Dent, this is supposed to be the ghost we saw in the grave yard. Then we fade into the first scene of our film. Tilly, our protagonist, is walking home from soccer training with her friend Kate. As they walk they talk about the death. In this scene we use color to foreshadow because Tilly wears a bright red singlet and holds a red bag. Red represents danger. As they walk you see that they are being watched from the bushes. As the two part ways we follow Tilly. Suddenly the long shot from behind changes to P.O.V tracking of someone or something chasing her. it gets faster and faster until it almost appears to collide with her. In fact, the thing that was following her was a invisible monster that goes inside the minds of its victims and festers, causing deadly paranoia. Tilly then continues her walk home, suddenly tense, as she feels she is being watched. Soon you see the figure of a dark character stalking Tilly. This dark "Shadow" character is actually not real. It is a dollusion created by the monster inside her mind. Knowing she is being watched and followed Tilly suddenly turns to find the Shadow behind her. Terrified Tilly runs. She reached the bridge where she tries to calm herself. Soothed slightly she continues her walk. but turning suddenly she sees the dead body of Kate and then the shadow, once again, right on her tail. This is where we will enter a series of montage shots. These will have jump cuts and will be very fast in order to bring up the pace of our film. Then as the monster in her mind is really killing her, Tilly collapses in a alley-way. The shadow creature comes upon her and chokes her. Then a passer by approaches. seeing Tilly, she asks if she is alright. This girl cannot see the shadow and is confused. Choked by her own mind, Tilly abruptly dies. The passer by then slowly approaches then begins to freak-out over the dead body of Tilly. Our film end with the fast final shot of a P.O.V that starts from where Tilly is lying on the ground and goes up towards the passer-bys face. This is supposed to show the Monster inside Tilly's mind going into a new person. This is followed by our end credits and finally a closing shot of Eliza and Tilly (who is now a ghost) holding hands in the grave yard.

Filming down

After weeks we finally finished our filming. We had a little bit of a rush, seaming that two of our actors were apart of the french exchange trip that left last Friday, so we've had to get everything together. But we did. we have all our footage and we now are entering our editing phase.

wee problems

In a series of unfortunate events i have been unable to update my blog, so I've been writing all my stuff down in books. Over the next few days I'll post all the stuff that should have been put up weeks ago...

Eliza - Creepy ghost girl

the character i am playing in the film is the ghost of the girl who was killed by the monster before Tilly. i am shown in the opening shots where i am pictured in the grave yard alone and isolated. the audience is not supposed to be threatened by me, but feel sorry for me. i also had a idea that our film could include a short shot at the end of our credits of my character and Tilly (Who is now a new ghost) holding hands in the grave yard. this shows that Eliza is not alone anymore that Tilly is dead too.

Symbolism

the costumes in my film are really symbolic because i really thought about each character and what i wanted to show about them. the ideas are quite simple so they work very effectively. in the film red represents danger so Tilly and the passer by will both be wearing red. Black means that a character is surrounded by death and natural neutral colors show that the character is sane and down to earth. Tilly wears a red singlet, carry a red bag and is wearing black shorts and shoes. this shows she is in a lot of danger and that death will soon be coming her way. our shadow creature which is the vision placed in the minds of the victims of the invisible monster wears all black because it is essentially death chasing them down. the passer by will be the next victim at the films end and so she is wearing natural colors to show she is sane at the moment but she is wearing red shoes and lipstick to foreshadow the danger she is in. finally we have our ghost girl who is in our opening scenes who is supposed to be the ghost of the girl who was previously killed by our mind invading monster. she is wearing all white, apart from black shoes. this shows she is now sarean in death, but it also shows her isolation in the land of the dead.

I LOVE MO CAM!!!!!

so me and Erin have been getting really into filming and editing. we have over half of our filming done and today we finally got to film our P.O.V tracking with the mo cam and it was amazing. we got some really good footage and decided that we were going to put much more into our film because it looked so good. our film is really coming along, cant wait to see it finished!!!!

Awkward Moment:

So i had a bit of a blond moment and did not think about the fact that i would not have media tomorrow. So i was unable to get a camera and i am already behind scheduled. the good news it i have all the costumes ready now. i even went and bought a dress from save-mart for my creepy dead girl look. hope we can film sometime during the week or me and Erin will have nothing to edit all week.

Production Schedule!!!

Saturday 11th August - All props assembled + Shoot opening shots for our intro (Approx 1hr)

Friday 17th August - Shoot scene two with Helen and Erin in Keith hay park. 6pm (approx 2hr) 

Saturday 18th August - Shoot Erin freak out "Filler"* shots in park

Sunday 19th August - Film all of scene 3, 4 & 5 in the park with Erin, Azora and Meg (Will take a while)

*Filler shots will be just in case we have a awkward moment and need a close up or something to cut to between somethings.

Horror Conventions in our film:

1) Costume - Inspired by Kubrick, i decided that i really wanted to have a lot of red in Tilly's costume to symbolism the danger she is in. She will be wearing black running shorts, a red tank top, a black jacket, running shoes and she will be holding a red tote. At this point in the film she is meant to be returning from football training so i tried to incorporate the red into sportswear. No one else in the film will be wearing red, even Eliza at the start because she is already dead. I hope people will recognized the foreshadowing through the color in the costume
2)Setting - i have chosen areas around Mt Roskill and Hillsborough to shoot because people will recognize them. this is because its what people claimed would scare them the most in my survey. the areas we are filming are also very nice looking and childish. for example we will be shooting in two parks, one will be around a playground. This will show the transition of good to evil more in my film.
3)Cinematography - I really want to use every camera angle and shot effectively so everyone fully understands my film. I will be using some P.O.V shots to show the creature stalking Tilly before invading her mind. I am hoping those shots will not only be scary but also convey the aggression in our invisible monster.
4)Sound - Sound will be very important to me for this project because its the sound that really makes the movie. you can go back and fix the lighting of a shot but if your sound is awful there is very little you can do. So i will be doing my best to get very clean sound. Secondly our film will have non-diagetic sound all throughout because i am a firm believer that silence is awkward. I want to have a good mix of bassey sounds that will build suspense and dramatic music for the really high tension moments. This will make it more climactic.
5)Structure (Open ended) - Our plot will be left open ended to give our viewers that last little gasp at the end of our film, plus to stay true to the typical aspects of horror. This will scare the viewers who have now let their guard down a little and give the film a memorable ending.

Here is a list of all the different ways we need to film each scene in:

Keith Hay Park Scene:
wide shot, mid shot, behind wide shot
Cycle Track:
Behind Still Shot (Erin will be walking away from camera), P.O.V tracking from behind, Mid Shot, Close up
Little John-West Park:
Mid shot(Front & Side on), High Angle, Zooming from Long to close up, Long Shot.

if we follow this we will get every shot we need

Vas Happnin?

So far i think things are going great. I recon i will be able to handle this assignment well. I do have commitments with football on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but i think i will be able to work around them and balance myself well. I know i am good with a video camera and so far i think my ideas are interesting. Me and Erin also work really well together because we think the same way. I am still really excited for filming!!!

Basic Info:

Characters:
Tilly - Female, 16, Played by Erin Steel, polite, Kind, Middle-class, Costume :Black Running shorts and a white t-shirt. I also want to have her wearing a Bright red Jumper, so we can be like Kubrick and have red symbolism danger.
Kate - Female, 16, average teenage girl, self obsessed, Sportswear
Eliza - Female, Teen, creepy ghost girl, impeccably dressed in cupcake dress, dead make-up
Laura - Female, older, white dress, walking dog

Locations:
Keith Hay Park, KHP Cycle Track, West Park, Hillsborough Cemetery, School, Little John Street

Props:
Masks, blood, bag, dog, boom, peach, needles, spiders, knives, meat

Budget: $50

Costumes:

Tilly - Sportswear (Black running shorts, White t shirt - showing the struggle between dark and light, running shoes, red jacket, red tote bag) Hair in a pony tail (gets messier over the course of the film), Make up that starts neutral then gets more haggard as the film goes on.
Kate - Pink Sportswear. Side pony tail, girly make-up.
Eliza - Cupcake dress, pinafore, Girly clothing, very neat, Hair down with a side braid and bow, dead make-up
Laura - White dress, Flats, neutral make-up, bun.

Plot Changes

After some thought we have decided it would be best to only have one creature that's stalking her on her way home. it will also be easier to shoot

Updates:

On Friday a friend offered to lend us his boom so we can perfect the sound. Sound is very important to me, as it really decides weather or not the film is good or bad. You can fix the filming with effects and tinting, but if the sound is messy there is not a lot you can do about it. Also Erin & I have gone for a walk and have several sets now: Keith Hay Park, KHP cycle track, Little John Park and the Hillsborough Cemetery. I am not sure if were allowed to shoot in the cemetery but it had such a picturesque horror film look to it. I am really excited about the film. my head is buzzing over all the ideas and music!

Plot? Sorted!

Today Erin and I finally settled on our plot: Our project will be a short psychological horror centering around our lead girl: Tilly. One evening after football training Tilly and her friend are walking home, talking about a girl from their school who died mysteriously. They then part ways and soon we see that Tilly is being stalked by a unknown predator. This thing manages to climb inside Tilly's mind and drive her insane. Tilly encounters many frighting things on her way home, all of which are being created by the evil festering inside her brain. Finally she reaches her house, but one of the shadowy creatures she has been seeing grabs her from behind and begins to strangle her. She screams and her sister comes outside to help but sees only Tilly in state of panic, as the shadow figure is only in Tilly's mind. Tilly dies anyway and the film closes with a point of view shot on the ground where Tilly is lying, which then moves up towards her sisters face, this is meant to show the mental creature passing into her sister, just as the creature that killed the girl from the school passed into Tilly. Now we have a story i am really excited to start filming. My goals for the film is to try and emulate Stanley Kubrick and make every shot significant and to try and perfect our sound, because it will annoy me if it is not the best it can be.

Location:

I have been thinking of some locations for filming in these holidays and i have decided that the long straight path that starts at the Keith hay park bridge and goes all the way along to the Carr road bridge would be perfect. it is lit really creepily at night and the length of it would make some amazing over the shoulder shots and some tracking like they have in "The Shining". the lighting may also create the whole dark and light effect.