Mac 2 Evaluation

This is my groups evaluation for our film opening and also my final post on my blog:

Article from The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/23/bass-opening-credits

Anne Billson discusses the history of opening credits

School Premiere

Our media teacher came up with the idea to showcase all of the AS and A2's media productions after school before we broke up for Easter. It was a great chance to see the finished projects of what everyone in our class had been working on and to also catch a glimpse of what could be waiting for us in A2, providing we carry on next year. It was a great chance to also hear the audience's response to our film opening. I was worried that people would zone out when our film was showing, or that the tension build-up wouldn't quite hold it's own on a huge screen and nobody would be scared or affected by our opening, but after talking to a handful of people afterward, my worries were in vain. It was lovely to hear that so many people enjoyed it and that our project had it's desired affect on those who watched it. Overall, I was really thrilled by the audiences response.

Sinister Pictures

As well as our 'Couch Potato Productions' logo, we wanted another production company name and logo that was appropriate for our genre of film. We thought long and hard for a name that wasn't too cheesy and we finally came up with 'Sinister Pictures'. Our first logo was more personal to us as a group and 'Sinister Pictures' is in keeping with our choice of genre. Me, Lucy and Tasha used the sound recorder on imovie to record ourselves whispering the words 'Sinister Pictures'. We then messed around with the pitch until we found the exact effect we thought was good enough for our opening.

Surveillance

We brainstormed for ages trying to pick an idea for a title of our film. We were going to incorporate the school/detention/playground theme with it, but then me and Tasha decided whatever we came up with in that area of thought would sound far too cheesy and wrong. We then considered focussing more on the fact that our film is more to do with a CCTV point of view and that's when we came up with 'Surveillance'. We do dislike the fact that it's a one-worded title, as it's quite a cliche thing for films nowadays, but overall we're happy with our title as it's relevant to the plot.

Final draft

This is the final draft of our opening, now including the mobile phone footage, IT room shot and Production logos.

Couch Potato Pictures

We've decided to call our first production company 'Couch Potato Productions' because when we first started our project, our preliminary exercise included the song 'One Potato'. We've taken pictures for our logo, using potatoes, a black felt tip pen and furniture from a dolls house:

LGFL sounds

We were thinking of constructing our own piece of music for our film opening, but another group in our media class introduced us to a website called http://www.audionetwork.com and we found music that fit our project perfectly. We were going to use the same sound all the way through, but decided it broke up the tension slightly. So we found another bit of music that worked really well with the rest of our scenes.

Nearly finished

We've shot the part of our film where our characters break in to the school, and we've now compiled the new scenes together. We still need to include our production company logos and shoot a scene in the IT room. We also need to upload the mobile phone footage we shot.

CCTV footage

We wanted to create a shot that looked just like cctv, so we filmed from the top of a gate outside the building. We wanted to show all the students leaving to put the point across that the school was deserted for the rest of our film opening.

More footage

Haven't blogged in a while. We've got a lot more footage for our final film now and it's nearly completed. Here's more footage we shot in the bathroom. We wanted to make the door move 'by itself' to create a creepy atmosphere, so I hid behind the door and pulled the door with a piece of thread, whilst Lucy filmed it. I think it worked quite well! You can't even see the thread...

Tuesdays filming

Tomorrow, we intend to film the scene where the two characters in our opening, break in to a locked up school. Our opening is meant to be chilling and creepy when it is finished and I really hope we can manage to pull it off. We will be using Tasha and Lucy to play the two characters who break in. We'll film them climbing over the school fence and then breaking in round the back of the gym entrance. We've decided to not include dialogue as we feel it will ruin any tension we have built up. Speech would make our opening appear cheap and amateur.

A fresh idea...

We've started forming a new idea in the horror genre and have now actually got some footage that I'm quite pleased with. We are going to continue filming on Tuesday, in the half term. We'll hopefully get some editing done as well. Here are some clips of what we've filmed: We have filmed scenes in the corridor too, during which we set the fire alarm off to get the doors to shut at the same time. I think it looks really effective.

Disaster.

We attempted to shoot footage for our 'final' idea. Due to lack of effort and poor planning, it came out looking terrible. Which when i think about it, isn't really surprising.

Black Swan

Last weekend, I went to the cinema to see the film Black Swan. I'd seen the trailer so many times and thought it looked fantastic. I was really worried that the film could not possibly live up to all the hype it had gotten, but I was not disappointed! Right from the opening shot, you can tell it's going to be a fantastic film. It opens with Natalie Portman (Or her stunt double, I couldn't be sure) dancing ballet on a dimly lit stage. The routine is so complex and perfectly performed, you cannot take your eyes off the screen. For the majority of the film, a hand-held camera technique is used, adding to the creepy, tense atmosphere as it looks like someone is constantly watching or following the main character. It causes the audience to feel extremely uncertain about what will happen. I had butterflies in my stomach the whole way through it. Also, I didn't realise there would be such a psychological element to it, which only made it better for me as I particularly enjoy films with that kind of edge. There are some really freaky moments in the film, which made me jump out of my seat. It's like nothing I've seen before and it's difficult to compare it to any other film. On top of that, the special effects they used blew me away. The director is Darren Aronofsky who also directed 'Requiem for a Dream', one of my favourite films ever made. Now I have another one of his films to add to my list. Black Swan is brilliant. I'm buying it as soon as it's out on DVD. It's a must-see.
This has made me think that a genre like this would be amazing fun to film, but probably very difficult to succeed with.

Got a needle!

Nada used to work in a pharmacy a while ago, so she was able to ask for a needle for us to use. No need to order one now.

Make-up

I've been on youtube watching make-up tutorial after make-up tutorial to try and find out how you make someone look sick without over doing it. This video is one of the best ones I could find. Obviously we won't over-do it like the girl in this video does, but we need something to show our character is sick.

Filming location

So this is our location for filming! Also known as Lucy's bedroom. It's ideal for what we want, as it's not too complex and hectic and the colour of the walls are perfect for us to pretend to write on:

Our character Olivia will be standing on the bed while she is writing.

I'm really happy with our location. It's ideal for the scene we'll be shooting. Filming will begin shortly...

Fake syringe or real one?

In our opening scene, our character injects herself with medicine. It's our way of letting the audience know she is sick. I don't know if it would be completely ridiculous to use a real syringe, but seeing as we plan to use a close-up shot of her doing it, I don't want it to look fake and silly. I might order a fake one and a real one and then test them both out...

 We also need to order an oxygen mask. I have found a couple on the internet that should be perfect. The mask will only be a prop in our characters room, she won't actually use it.

http://the-therapy-connection.com/Oxygen-Mask-Adult-With-7-Tubing/M/B00091QRT8.htm?traffic_src=GB&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=GB&id=uk

Final Idea!

We have sat down as a group once again and found an idea that we are sticking to. We all agree on every aspect of it, so there should be no further problems.
We have decided to go for a teenage drama genre.

Our story will be about a teenage girl called Olivia who has cancer. There's a possibility that I might be playing Olivia because I 'look sick' as Tasha so kindly pointed out. I am extremely pale though so it might be that I have to act in our project. Can't wait to see how that works out. The opening will show Olivia writing a list of things she would like to achieve before she dies, on her bedroom wall. A bit depressing, but hey ho. We are going to film the opening in Lucy's bedroom and it will be shot in black and white just to represent how badly her life has changed due her illness.

We are currently scripting everything we would like to include in the opening. The idea sounds a bit simple right now, but we have many ideas to incorporate in to it. I will post a script and the storyboard we are in the process of making, when it is done.

New genre idea

My media group have now decided that we are going to focus on the horror genre. As a group, we understand that this is the most commonly used genre and we do know there is a risk of our final project coming out as cheesy and cliche. We do believe that if we have a bit of self control with our ideas, we can make something scary but tasteful. We are running out of time though, so we need to get a move on and start forming something solid.

Catfish

Before we broke up for the christmas holidays, our teacher showed us the trailer for the film 'Catfish'. I read a handful of reviews on the film and all were extremely negative, accusing the trailer of being misleading and building up a story that just didn't hold its own. A lot of people claimed that from the trailer, the genre of the film is shown as a thriller. I watched the film on sky box office over the holidays and I thought it was amazing. Although I understand what people mean when they say the trailer is misleading, if you watch it with an open mind, it's a fantastic film. It's definitely not a horror film, it's more of an indie drama. I loved the way it was shot and I especially liked the editing process as it adds a quirky edge to the film. I highly recommend it.