MM - Shoot Feedback

On Tuesday the 29th of March, we all went to all of our locations in Dunton Green. We did quite a few of the train shots, and tried out a few new like over the shoulder and low angle which were quite successful. The over the shoulder shot look good because we could see my expression while seeing Josh's, also we can use pull focus as well. The storyboard was quite useful as we forgot the shots and angles that we were going to use. We will be doing our final shoot tonight, as we only have a few shots left to do.

CB-Blog Director-Progress Report

As blog director i have assessed what we need to do:

1) Footage: From our last shoot on tuesday, we realised that we still need to convey some more shots such as our 'canted angle' blinking shot, which shows zombies running towards out protagonist character. However the weather has now changed and become wet, therefore we may not be able to produce this shot yet.

2) Editing: So far we have edited the majority of the footage, however certain shots are missing so we will have to fill them in later.

3) Blog: On the blog we are up to date with all the posts apart from the methodolgy and results of the questionairre and the risk assessment.

MM - Soundtrack

Today we were working on our sound track, we went up to the recording room in school, and experimented with the bass and drums. We played the bass first, and overlaped the drums over the top. We used software called Cubase 4 that the school computer has. We looped both the drums and bass to save time, make it more consistent and so we could extend and shorten them if we wanted to. The bass had quite a fast tempo and had overdrive on it. It went very well, and we are nearly finished. Tonight we will be going out to film which is one of our last shoots, as we need a few more shots.

Progress update

Marcus Calum, Josh. This is an excellent blog, I am very impressed with your very businesslike approach to this module and how you work together. I can see no reason at this stage to deduct any marks from your planning grades, provided all the tasks on the to do list get done of course! Calum you seem to be on top of this.

MM - Costume and Props

As the protagonist my costume is smart, I will be wearing a suit, shirt and tie. The zombies (played by Joshua, Callum and another actor) have different make up consisting of white make up and blood on face, and blood on t shirt. They will also be wearing normal clothes for example a red polo and blue hoodie, so the audience can relate.

The props we are using are an ipod and headphones, another effective technique, changing to diegetic sound of music coming out the headphones and then a change to non-diegetic sound of 'hysteria' by Muse.

CB-Blog Director-Progress Report

So far we have had three shoots located at 'Dunton Green' train station and on the southeastern trainline. However so far we have not completed all the shots that we need to portray. We need to shoot shots on the train including an birds-eye-view of the protagonist.

We also need to have a POV shot showing the 'zombies' running towards the protagonist and a tracking shot behind the protagonist. We will need two more shoots to get all the footage. This will be done on the '28-03-11' and '29-03-11'.

To meet the deadline we need to get all the footage that we will use and we will have to leave enough time to edit the opening sequence. We also need to get the soundtrack made by other musicians, this will take quite alot of time so we will have to organise our time well. But if it works well and fits in with our opening sequence it will help portray the panic of the situation.

Group - Animatic of Storyboard

The above video is our Animatic of our storyboard. We produced the video in order to understand the estimated length of our opening sequence. Furthermore this video will act as the base of which we as a group will work around in the production of our opening sequence. We also made each shot length on the video of the storyboard, the estimated time we have planned for this shot to last in the opening sequence.

MM -Feedback on Preliminary Task

1. For our preliminary task we had to think about continuity editing, the 180’ rule, and use two lines of dialogue. We decided to have a ‘hitman’ scene, where someone (the hitman) kills the mark (vulnerable person). We wanted to go for a different genre to try and incorporate different aspects and techniques into our actual opening sequence.
2. We decided to use a variety of shots to see which ones were most effective, so we could use them in our real clip. We used POV shots, low angle shots, eye level shots, Close ups, panning shots, and many more. We used some editing technique for example the blurry effect on the establishing shot.
3. Overall I think our preliminary task was successful, for me the most successful thing was the continuity and the variety of shots. However the acting was not great which was not a big surprise because none of our group does or has any experience in drama. But because we are used to watching the big blockbusters with the big stars, that’s the only thing we can judge it against. So of course it’s not going to be as good as the Hollywood films.

CB-Shoot Feedback

On saturday the 19th of March (19/03/11) me, Josh and Marcus (group 3) went to 'Dunton Green' train station to film for the second time.
Our shoot went well as we went earlier in the day so the lighting was different and more effective, we found it easier to portray the protagonist character. Furthermore we did a POV shot that was very effective as it conveyed the protagonist character in a vulnerable position.
However the lighting got too dark too quickly, this prevented us from filming a long shot of the protagonist running through a deserted path.
Our storyboard helped us understand what shots we were doing and how we would portray them, giving us the type of angle and shot distance.
Next time we need to get there at the same time so the lighting will be the same and we can portray the protagonist in a long shot.

JM - News on Soundtrack audio

After reading the specification we learnt that the soundtrack can not have any copyright infringement. After numerous attempts on searching for the Muse - Hysteria track on the internet we were unsuccessful. We have therefore decided to make our own copy of the song. We have gained the assistance of a group of Musicians to produce a copy of the song. The group under the supervision of us will be making the track in our Schools Studio facilities. In order to have this soundtrack ready for our editing stage of the opening sequence we will have to book a Studio time soon.

MM - Class Discussion

During the class yesterday, after looking at our footage that we had taken over the weekend, we found that the majority of our filming was just me, the main actor running. We thought that is would be very repetitive and tedious for the audience. We also found that nothing really happens to made him run. So we discussed that something worse and more has to happen to trigger him to sprint off. We also said about using more zombies to also make the main character run off.

MM - First Footage

On Saturday the 12th of March, we took the camera out to our locations for the first time. We found that it got dark very quickly and we left it to late to film everything. This analysis is very useful as if we had left it later to find this out it would have been much worse, as we would have had less time to film. We took a variety of shots to see which ones to use in our actual sequence. A lot of them we all thought were really good, however a few of them did not look as good as we thought they would. Sadly we could not film everything that we planned to use in our opening sequence, but we are certain that it will look interesting and keep the audience wanting to watch more. We are thinking of filming this weekend and after school once or twice next week. Our first footage personally I think went well and we learned a lot which is the main purpose of it.

JM - Research

Above is a clip from 28 Days later. There is some interesting use of black flashes alongside the film with the audio bridged over. This technique could be ideal for our group as it will allow us to show the Zombies in detail and maintain a realistic feeling to the opening sequence.

CB-Blog Director-Progress Report

As blog director I have looked through all the work on the blog, given it a current grade and stated where certain parts need improving. Overall the work is too a good standard but certain bits can be improved, for example the technical analysis needs to be more technical and key words need to be highlighted. As a group we also need to comment on other posts, this will give easy written communication so we can all clearly understand our opening sequence, the different resources we need and what we are going to do when filming.

As from now we, as a group, need to:
Scan in Moodboard and call sheet.
Develop and highlight key words in the technical analysis' and 'analysing an opening sequence'.
Upload wilderness woods location recce.
Upload slides of methodology and results of audience questionairre.
Ensure all the font throughout the blog is the same.
Provide a detailed introduction to every piece of work on the blog.
Ensure comments are made on posts and that all work is completed in detail.

MM - Title

This is the title we have chosen and the font we are going to use. We found it quite hard to decide on a title as we all liked different things. But we think that the title we have come up with is bold and ties in well with the genre of the film, which is zombie, horror. The font also anchors the genre as its messy and looks like black blood.

CB-Pitch Feedback

From our pitch feedback we have learnt that to make a good 'zombie' opening sequence will be hard to do well and could look cheap and 'tacky'.

We need to focus on:
Make-up
Costumes of our zombies to give an effective and realistic look.
Contrast our zombies to give a vibrant red, representing blood.
Soundtrack will need to be chosen very specifically to represent either a playful or ironic theme.
Permission for our opening sequence is also needed from South Eastern train company.

Overall we now know that to make our opening sequence good, a lot of detail and effort will be needed, otherwise it will look cheap and tacky.

Group- Location Reccie

Below are some pictures of the location we are planning on filming. On our location reccie we took numerous pictures shown below. We did the reccie at night to understand the lighting that will be available to us when we shoot.

Group - Audience Research Questionnaire

Above is the Questionnaire we used when conducting our Audience Research. Alongside this questionnaire we showed the audience a short presentation giving an introduction to our idea.

Group - Preliminary task

This is our Preliminary Task, including a conversation and the use of continuity editing.

Group Work-Risk Assessment

This is our risk assessment, evaluating the risks that could occur when filming. We also stated comments that would help us overcome these risks, for example take an umbrella to protect the camera equipment in poo weather conditions.

Group Work-Moodboard

This is our moodboard, expressing our ideas realted with our film idea of horror. It shows our ideas on location, chracters, costume, fonts, soundtrack, lighting and camera techniques.

JM- Pitch Presentation

Group 3 Opening Sequence Production on Prezi

CB-Technical Analysis

Shot 1 00.00-01.00
The first shot is an establishing long shot of trees with blue sky behind it; this along with birds is representing calmness and peace.

Shot 2
The black background with red ‘blood like’ title of universal pictures represents a different side of the title sequence, it is also made clear that it a universal pictures film.

Shot 3
A close-up of a male screaming, with very evident red blood with a pale face suggest problems and corruption, it also suggests to the audience that it could perhaps be an infection.

Shot 4
The extreme close-up of a mouth shows the grusome infection that is spreading. Also the quick cutting rate then portrays other disturbing images, with the red blood being evident.

Shot 5
The title of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ again in bold, blood like writing suggests corruption and death.

Shot 6
Shot 6 is a low angle medium shot of what appears to be a soldier with a gas mask on suggesting further corruption and the start of the narrative that people are fighting back. Also it implies that it is a world issue, as the army become involved.

Shot 7/8/9/10
The next shots are of a very quick cutting rate, again conveying shocking close-up images representing blood and infection through ‘zombies’. Again these shots are mixed in with ‘bloodlike’ titles which are a good contrast to the opening sequence.

Shot 11
An 'over the shoulder ' medium shot shows a TV news programme, which is representing the realism in the film, how it is a world epidemic, also it can relate to the audience very strongly as it is one everday news which occurs around the world daily.

Shot 12
A video showing 'amateur footage', this represents the realism of the epidemic and how it affects everyone. It is a long shot showing corruption, panic and fear amogst the public on the streets.