After these were complete, our next aim was to produce a set of creative ideas that we would eventually need to select one for our final piece. We produced four main ideas that consisted of a bank robbery, mockumentary about college life and a zombie horror. We researched various films that were similar to these ideas to try and get an idea of how they often start. After presenting our ideas to the class, the general feedback was that we should create something slightly more serious as we attempted to go down the comedy route in our preliminary task. Because of this, we selected the zombie horror film to be our final piece. After planning we realized how difficult it would be to make this movie, therefore we decided that we needed to create a different idea but along the same genre. Then we thought of a film where a female is watching a news report where an escaped convict is on the run. He then enters her house and kills her.

We researched similar films to what our idea is to see what to expect from one. It was evident to see that this would much easier to carry out with less need on props, costume etc. We were then ready to begin the pre-production documentation. This involved a script, storyboard, prop and set list. We started with the script. As me and Darrell had a different idea for the script than Harry, we decided to do two different versions and then compare them. The two scripts had the same events and dialogue but scenes were in a different order. After careful consideration, we opted for myself and Darrell’s version as we felt it made more sense. Next we needed to create a storyboard. This wasn’t too difficult as it was the same as our script but without the dialogue and with drawings that show what type of camera angle it’s going to be, e.g. long shot or extreme close-up.

Then we needed to choose a suitable location. With our film set in a house, it would be easiest if it was filmed in one of our homes. We narrowed it down to either mine or Harry’s house and after assessing them we decided to film at Harry’s for convenience as he lives in the middle of the rest of the group. Furthermore, his house was available for a lot of the time.

The props list involved hammer (for the killing), ketchup (for fake blood), a sofa and a TV. This was all easily available at the location upon filming. We then needed to decide on the cast. We decided that we would all play some part in the film but we needed to find a suitable female to play the role of the victim. Harry’s sister volunteered so the problem was resolved. It was decided that I would play the killer, Darrell the detective and Harry the News reporter. Before we were ready to film, the pre-production documents needed to be signed. This included talent release, location release, risk sheets and personal release forms.

From this, we were ready to film. We felt that in our preliminary task we rushed the filming and that it showed when it came down to editing with countless number of continuity errors. Therefore, this time we gave ourselves the whole weekend to film which we felt was plenty of time to film each scene many times from different angles to ensure that the editing process would not be more difficult than it needed to be.

As we wanted the scene to be at night this meant that the quality would be affected as the contrast was darker. I felt that this was present in the final piece. For the last scene we needed a realistic blood substitute. We used ketchup for this but as Harry understandibly didn’t want his floor getting stained, we put cling film on it in hope that the camera wouldn’t pick it up. As we saw in the editing, it did.

The editing took the best part of two weeks. First of all, we looked through each and every clip to decide which clip would be used for each scene. Once we selected each clip and put them in order, we needed to spot any continuity errors that may have occured. The only error we spotted was the cling film that we were expecting. This was clearly visible so therefore we had to use a program called After Effects to cut out the cling film and replace it with flooring. Also with After Effect we created the titles, names and some transitions such as fade ins and outs.

For the soundtrack we use a program called Reason. With this we could create a proffessional soundtrack that ties in with our theme of horror. We called also design it specifically for our piece so the tempo could increase/decrease and also it could intesify when we needed it to. When this was complete and added to the film, we submitted our final piece.

Our piece is very much your stereotypical horror/murder film. It is a young female who is the victim killed by a male. This is fairly common in a modern day horror. Furthermore, it’s set at night so it’s very dark even inside the house as she had no lights on which created an atmosphere. Something that is different compared to normal murder scenes is that she is watching a news report about the killer that is about to murder her. I’ve never really seen this before.

I’m not sure that our piece represents any singular type of social group but it does make the female vulnerable and the male dominant which I don’t believe is the case in everyday society. I do feel that the age group that have acted in it (teenagers) would be most likely to go and see it.

I think that the most likely institution to distrute our film would be someone like Twisted Pictures, Compass International or Dimension. This is because we aimed for our film to be in a similar style to films distributed by these companies such as the Saw, Scream and Halloween.

I think that the audience of our film would be ages 18-30 as that is what age this genre usually attracts. I think that the characters being teeneagers also encourages a slightly more youthfull audience. It would be most likely the working class males that watch this film although some females would too. The technologies that we have learnt from this project are mainly three programs called Final Cut Pro, After Effects and Reason. Final Cut Pro was good for sorted out each clip, cutting it down, and then putting them all in order. After Effects helped in the animation and effects such as the titles and news report layout. Reason was the program that we used to create the soundtrack. Furthermore, we learnt new techniques on the camera during filming such as colour balance.

Personally, I believe that we have laid out our work for this project more efficiently than our preliminary. By this I mean that we planned it much better and gave ourselves plenty of time for each stage of the project. I felt that we rushed certain areas in our preliminary task and it showed. I also feel that as it was not our first time using programs such as Final Cut Pro and After Effects, that our skills had improve by doing the preliminary task because it wasn’t all new to us. In addition to this, I think that we learnt not to do such a complex storyline like our preliminary task with too much emphasis on costume and we needed a specific location that was hard to find. This time we kept it more simple by filming in a house where we could be there as long as it took and with the costume just everyday clothes. Overall, I feel that our main task in certainly a progression from our preliminary task as we new what to expect this time as we had done it before and we were more experienced with the equipment and editing software.

First of all, we needed to view each clip that we had taken and delete what was not needed, eg, mistakes/bloopers. Then we broke the film clips down to scene by scene and selected the one, that we felt was, the best clip.

Once this was done, we had our basic, unedited version of the film. The clips were then trimmed to the length needed. We then checked every clip we included for continuity or realism errors. We only spotted one which was the cling film used to keep the ketchup from staining. This was clearly visible and so we had to get rid of it as it would cost us valuable marks. As the scene was important we needed to keep it in but take the cling film out. To do this we cut around our character lying on the floor and copy and pasted parts of the flooring, blending them in, in place of where the cling film was. This worked so the clip was re-entered back into the piece.

After this, we included video transtions such as fade in/out to create more of a film look and to let the viewer know it’s a different scene. We then included the titles such as our names, production name and film titles. Instead of just appearing we created various effects such as fading text and moving text with different textures etc. This was created in Adobe Aftereffects and then just dropped into our piece using Final Cut Pro.

The final thing needed to be done to our piece was the soundtrack. As it had to be copy-right free or our own material, we created our own using software called Reason. Although it was time consuming the advantages of this were, we could set our own tempo when needed, it could be however we liked and it could fit perfectly for the theme of piece. After this was created we added it to our piece where needed. We set the volume to different levels in different scenes to create tension etc. When this was finsihed our production was complete and ready to be submitted.

We found it difficult to get blood (ketchup) in our scene without possibly staining the floor. Therefore Harry thought of using clingfilm underneath as it shouldn’t appear on the camera. This enabled us to have blood. I also felt that it was difficult to get the right colour balance as we wanted it to be dark/night but that meant the quality of the video decreased.

Other than this, everything went smoothly and we feel reasonably pleased with the footage we have and are ready for editing next week.

With the script sorted, the next lesson we created the storyboard. This was pretty simple as it was the same scenes as the script but without dialogue and with drawings for each scene showing what each shot type will be e.g. long shot.

We then created a list of props needed. This included a hammer (for the killing), ketchup (for fake blood), a sofa and a TV. Luckily, this was all present at Harry’s house already so therefore was ready when needed at filming.

The cast then needed to be selected. We all decided that we would each have a part in the film, I would be the killer, Darrell the detective and Harry the news reporter. We then needed to find a female who was willing to play this victim role. Harry’s sister was willing to which fit well.

After this, we had to find a suitable location to film. As it the scene is in a house, it would need to be filmed in one of our own homes. After taking under consideration the suitability and availability of each house we decided that Harry’s house would be most convenient.

After getting all the forms signed by the relevant people such as location release, personal release and risk sheets we were ready to film.

http://darrellduhy.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/powerpoint.ppt

This powerpoint presentation is the presention we presented to the class. It shows our four main ideas and the research that we presented to the class. From the response we received from the class, I think that the zombie film was the most popular.

After producing a slightly more comical piece for our preliminary task, many students in the class suggested that they’d rather we created a more serious piece. Because of this we chose the zombie style film. We have chosen this because if we get it right, it will be very effective. The drawbacks were that it would require alot of cast and also each member would need a lot of work to look the part. Futhermore, we will need to find a quiete street that would no cause disruption to any residents.

After assessing this idea, we, as a group, decided that it wouldn’t work as well as other potential ideas. We then came up with the idea of a news report about someone who had escaped from a local mental asylum, then a girl in her house, watching T.V gets attacked by the male. I feel that this could be more effective than the zombie idea and also much simpler as we wouldn’t need to worry about finding many zombies all with makeup and costume etc.

We then requestioned the students to hear their views on this new idea and it revieved positive feedback. Therefore we concluded that this would be the final idea for our piece.

Our second idea was an ‘The Office’ style film where it’s a mockumentary of the college using tutors and students. Although if it worked it would be great, I feel that this would be difficult to carry out and it may end up being similar to our premliminary task (in terms of the humour).

Our third idea was a zombie style film whereas a man wakes up and the he is the only human left on earth. This seemed the better of the three ideas as it was fairly simple to carry out and could be verry effective. Problems could be getting a street quiete enough so that it’s empty for long periods and getting many zombies to look the part.

Before we started with ideas for our piece, we produced S.M.A.R.T Targets that would help us achieve our aims and so that our coursework has a structure to it. These can be found here:

I feel that these targets meet the requirments as the are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based. If we follow these targets to the deadlines then we will certainly have enough time for each section of the project to be complete at a good standard.

S.M.A.R.T Targets

Creative Ideas

Specific – It will be specific because the ideas that we think of will have to be related to the brief given by the exam board.
Measurable – It will be measurable because will we select some of the best ideas we have come up with and present them to the class to get feedback on ideas we thought of.
Achievable – It will be achievable by having enough ideas by the time we have to present them to the class.
Realistic – It will be realistic by making sure that we can produce the film, in the time set and its not over the top or to expensive to produce.
Time-based – 4th January 2010

Research

Specific – We will be researching films that are related to our ideas.
Measurable – We will do enough research so we have a better idea of that genre.
Achievable – It’s achievable as we will split the research between the group members
Realistic – We can use resources such as DVDs and Youtube
Time-based – 18th January 2010

Assign production roles
Specific – It will be specific by assigning roles to people that are good at that role.
Measurable – To give everyone jobs so that they are clear on what they have to for the film
Achievable – it is achievable by making sure that we have meetings to discuss everyones progression on certain tasks
Realistic – It is realistic by giving roles to people who can do well in them
Time-based – 18th January 2010

Originally, I was leaning towards producing a magazine cover until and brief discussion with a few people, in which we decided a video would be a more convenient decision. First of all, as a group, we sat round a table with a pen and paper and shared possible ideas for our piece. After many ideas were given we decided we wanted a gangster style exchange scene. We each studied a relevant scene from different films. I was researching “Snatch” to see how similar style characters acted, spoke and were shown. After watching many clips, we noticed that this type of scene was very common upon gangster movies. Therefore we wanted ours to be different from the rest. We opted for a comical twist where the package would be a fast food bag and the main gangster not being happy that the fries were missing. Consequently, we decided that the gangster would shoot dead the delivery boy. Soon after this stage Matt left our class as his timetable changed and therefore left the group but was still willing to act for us. We presented our idea to the class and received many funny looks which we saw as a good thing because that means it’s not common and is therefore original. We then devised S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, timed) targets that helped us stick to the deadline and see if we were on course or falling behind at anytime.

We then needed to decided on what we wanted the scene layout to look like. After viewing many film clips we noticed that an office type scenery was common and therefore went down that path. Next we had to find an appropriate venue to film. After considering places inside the college itself, we thought of a great room in our previous secondary school that had the potential to be ideal. After receiving permission to film at King Harold School and also to film one scene at a friend’s house we sorted out roles, devised a scrip, list of props, storyboard and summary sheet. Once completed, we managed to get all of the pre-documentation filled in and signed by everyone concerned. We knew that for the props we would need a realistic looking gun and knew a friend who gave us permission to use his bb gun on the day of shooting.

The day we received the camera equipment, we didn’t have the required location or actors available. Therefore the three of us thought it would be useful to familiarise ourselves with the equipment and editing software by devising a short clip of me and Harry walking down a corridor, shot from different angles with transition added in using the ‘Final Cut Pro’ software. This also allowed us to see what type of copyright-free sound effects were available.

The weekend that we were going to film, although at first seemed ideal, didn’t turn out quite the way we thought. Darrell had work commitments for most of that Saturday, Harry would have to leave early and return late due to a job interview and the we couldn’t use the school on the Sunday as no member of staff would be present and the grounds would be locked. Because of this, me and Harry began to film the beginning of our piece at about nine o’clock before he left and Matt arrived. At that point me and Matt filmed the clips that contained just me and him and also rearranged the room to look more like an office (not a classroom). After we filmed everything we could, and after a long wait, Harry and Darrell finally arrived and we managed to complete the filming, noticeably against the clock as the member of staff had to leave and lock up.

Back at the class we put all of the clips onto the Mac and decided which clips were usable and tried to put them in order of occurance which included cutting many clips down to size. We hadn’t received much training on using ‘Final Cut Pro’ so were using trial and error an awful lot. This may have slowed us down but also we may have found certain effects we wouldn’t have before without not knowing what it was. We added a sepia and desaturate tint over the entire film to give a slightly more older theme to it apart from the last seen in which there is a strong red tint when he awakes after being shot to give a sign of blood that could also represent danger as the next thing he sees is Matt about to kick him in the face. We then noticed a number of continuity errors that our film contained including desks moving Harry’s hood removed, scissors disappearing, gun changing hands and blinds changing. Therefore we needed to fix these as it was a continuity task. First of all we devised on a sheet of paper a quick sketch of each scene with the errors, how they could be fixed and a checklist once completed. We took out the scene where there was different blinds as we though it wasn’t necessarily needed. Then we cropped a few scenes to deal with the scissors disappearing and desks moving. Finally we had to shoot two short scenes: Harry removing his hood when entering the building and Matt changing the gun into his other hand whilst loading it. After this we could not spot any further errors.

Next we needed to find an appropriate soundtrack and sound effects. After viewing many websites that offer copyright-free material we managed to get a gunshot, door knocking, heartbeat, buzzer and soundtrack to put into our piece. I didn’t really agree with the soundtrack that was chosen but after searching for an alternative, I failed to find one that was more suitable with the limited choice available. The last thing that needed to be completed were credits and a cartoon style freeze-frame of each character for the introduction. I managed to complete this at home using software called ‘Adobe Aftereffects’ which I had used previously and feel it offers a lot more than available on ‘Final Cut Pro’. This took a lot of time and many things when wrong that shouldn’t normally. After it was completed i feel it was worth the effort put in. Once this was included the film was ready to be exported and uploaded onto Youtube.

The finished product has no errors that we have managed to notice, includes two scenes previously not included and has all sound effects needed. I feel that this will make more sense to our audience and make it more believable. I don’t believe that our film necessarily represents a social group as it is very exaggerated and I don’t haven’t seen anyone quite like our characters. I think that our film is similar to that of ‘Scary Movie’ and ‘Epic Movie’ so if media institution were to distribute our product, it would probably be a company similar to ‘Dimension Films’. The intended audience for our piece was late teens onwards. This is because of the violence with the gunshot but also because I feel the younger audience would appreciate the humour more,  although many adults have laughed at it. Once completed, we invited many students from our class to complete a questionnaire about it. From this, the average score was 7/10 and the least favourite character was me whilst the most liked was Matt.

From the construction of this, I have learnt many new skills on ‘Final Cut Pro’ such as transitions and how to cut clips appropriately. Furthermore, I have learnt how to use the camera equipment and will feel better prepared for the next coursework task.

Our piece challenges similar types of films by adding that comedy element that isn’t really found commonly to my knowledge. Overall I am pleased with the final product especially the editing side of it. We unfortunately didn’t have much time to film and at first it showed, but with many hours spent editing, we were able to make it look a lot more professional. I think that we have learnt many lessons for our main task and should leave a lot more time for film and film each scene a few times to get the majority of errors out of the film before editing has even begun. In addition to this, perhaps we should choose a type of film that is not as challenging as I feel it was very difficult to give a realistic feel to our piece.