Filming Some Re-Takes

After spotting a few areas where we could improve our film, we set out on another day of shooting. This involved some re-takes of our killer and photographer in the woods and when they leave in their cars.

Having watched back our existing footage, we realised that when our killer pulls the body from the boot of his car, he is in a different place to where he eventually leaves in pursuit of the photographer. This was of course a continuity error which we had to remove. This was very easy for us as we just moved the shots we already had to the new car park and did them again.

Using a car as a platform, we managed to create a great aerial shot. Because the car is steady with our tripod on top, the shot looked great. We even managed to overcome the problem of hitting record when the camera was out of reach by using a remote control!

Eventually we got the shots we wanted and moved onto our next location in order to correct our other errors. The rough cut we created showed us that we needed to show more of the reason why our killer began to chase our photographer and why the photographer ran away. We did this by showing the photographer being discovered by the killer and having the killer initiate the chase.

To show the killer dicovering the photographer, we showed him being disturbed by noises whilst he is digging. To show his paranoia in this situation, we used jump cuts of him looking around trying to see where the noise came from. Eventually he sees the killer looking scared in an over- the-shoulder shot. The next sequence of shots shows the killer initiating the chase.

Having done this, we then re-shot the slow motion take of our photographer running away and dropping his camera. We decided to do this as it would create a better lighting match.

The final shot we re-took was an extreme close up of our photographer taking a picture because the first time we did this shot we accidentally picked up a reflection of our cameraman in the photographers lens!

Having considered ways to correct this reflection, we decided that crouching behind the camera was the best choice.

With these retakes finished we now only need a few more shots in our car chase to have completed filming.

The First ManFlick Podcast

This morning we created our first ManFlick podcast. It contains a basic rundown of our production process so far aswell as a few good laughs between us. We thought it would be another way of documenting ourselves as we do this and a great thing to look back on.

Creating the podcast was very easy, we simply used a MacBook that had Garage Band installed on it and plugged in an external microphone. From their we just gave a quick run through of what our blogs have been containing up to this point. To us, the podcast is just a great way of condensing our blogs into a more accessible format and also a more enjoyable one.

Upcoming Plans

Having made a quick (5 minute rougher than Chuck Norris' beard) cut of our film we have spotted a few things to change and a few thngs to add. Because of this we will be doing some extra filming soon.

Filming Continues

Throughout the week, we continued our filming. This time focusing on the shots of our photographer as he walks around the woods and then the foot chase between the killer and photographer before they reach their cars. We went to Windsor Great Park to do this and found things much easier due to the location research we carried out during half term.

The shoot itself ran very smoothly and we had great fun doing it. It was also made far more enjoyable because of the lack of hole digging! We got all of the footage we needed and some extra shots which we thought might look good if we took them. This creativity was very satisfying because a days filming shouldn't be totally rigid to what our storyboards dictate.

Our only problems whilst shooting were the constant stream of dog walkers and cyclists around the park. We had expected this however, and so we started filming at 1:30pm to give us plenty of time to shoot even if the public did cause us delays.

Poll Results

My digital poll is now over and the results can be seen in the top left hand corner of the blog.

The results are pretty much a mirror of the more in depth market research we carried out before, with Action and Comedy being the 2 most popular genres.

Our First Day Of Filming

On Saturday the 7th of March, our film officially went into the production stage. We bagan by filming our serial killer digging his hole, a task which required a lot of labour!




It took us a while to dig a big enough hole, however in the end we had a grave for our victim.

Production Day 1

View more presentations from ManFlickProductions.

The rest of our photos from the day are on the following Photobucket album.

http://s687.photobucket.com/albums/vv240/Manflick/

We are also in the process of creating a video production diary for the shoot. This will continue through all of our shoots and be an extra feature on our final film.

Schooting Schedule

Before setting our on our fisrt day of filming, we sat down and agreed when all the filming and storyboarding could be done. This was important to do so that we had a smooth schedule rather than leaving things to the last minute.

Our preliminary task had tought us that a lack of planning would make things extremely difficult at a later date, so we created this and hope it will make things easier.

Storyboards

During our pre production stage we have created some storyboards to give us an idea of what each shot we want will look like. They are in the slideshow below.

Media Coursework Storyboards

View more presentations from ManFlickProductions.

Character Construction Research

Because our film will not be containing any actual violence, we need to work much harder in representing the serial killer as a serial killer. The main way we will do this will be through costume and mannerisms. With this in mind I have decided to research some other famous screen killers to get some ideas.

Ghostface

The first killer I have chosen to analyse is Ghostface. He stars in the "Scream" trilogy as the killer and is also highly recognisable, partly because of the success of the Scream films and also because he is often parodied. His costume comprisises of a long black robe which has slashed edges and his trademark white mask. The mask is a generic trait of screen serial killers as it hides their face, building tension until the moment in the film when we discover their true identity. Re-using this mask in our film would be far too cliché for our liking, however the long black robes are a definate possibilty.

The Candyman

My next killer is The Candyman of 1992 film "Candyman". He is a unique killer in that his appearance is not impaired by a mask and he is not of the human world. The plot of the film states that The Candyman can be summoned by anyone who chants his name 5 times whilst looking into a mirror. This trait means that he does not need to hide his identity because in theory he doesn't exist. Despite this, he is constructed as a serial killer through of his long black coat and the way he is never seen without his murder weapon, a fish hook. The use of a long black coat is again appealing to us because it is an easy and recognized way of constructing a serial killer. A coat is also easier for us to obtain than a robe.

Craig

Craig is a mentally ill hermit from the 2005 britflick "Creep". Craig prays upon late night passengers of The London Underground, using the darkness as camoflage to snaek up on them. He is created as evil mainly through his grotesque appearance. He is scarred, bruised and deformed and therefore different to other humans. Exactly what he is remains a mystery for most of the film, and this lack of knowledge about his species and therefore abilities leaves the audience fearful of what he may do. Use of prosthetics and make up would be highly effective in our piece, however their high degree of difficulty makes them inviable for us to use.

The Creeper

The Creeper is an ancient demon who survives by ingesting his victims in order to gain the body part he eats. He is another serial killer who wears a long coat but his demonic abilities mean he feels it is unnecesary to conceal his identity, instead he just wears a hat. His costume and physique mean that he bears a resemblance to a normal human and so silhouette's are effectively used in The Jeepers Creepers movies to make the characters believe he is in fact a human. In one scene of the film, two of his future victims believe they are safe havng taken refuge in a field. In the field a silhouette of a scarecrow is visible but is of cousre harmless. However wings soon spread from the scarecrow and the soon victims realise they have still not escaped. This type of villain is far more effective in big budget films because make up and special effects allow for better construction of the caharacter.

Freddy Krueger

Freddy Krueger is the star of the "A Nighmare On Elm Street" films, first seen in 1984. His legend is that he can kill teenagers through their dreams. His look is based upon childrens clothing because his legend states that he was burned alive as a child. He therefore wears a childish (though bloodstained) red and green striped jumper. His death means that his reincarnation is burned from head to toe. Once again this kind of make up would be great in a film but is far to complex and expensive for our budget.

Having taken a small look into the characteristics of serial killer costume, we decided that our killer would wear dark overalls with black shoes. This would make him hard to see at night, but also clearly construct him as a serial killer.

First Returns

My poll continues for a few more days, but our questionnaire's are all complete and we have collated the results using Apple Pages.



Once the results had been collated, we made some charts to show them in a visual manner. Once these graphs were completed, we exported them into an Apple Keynote slideshow which can be seen below.

Market Research Analysis

View more presentations from ManFlickProductions.

Market Research

In order to accurately pinpoint a target audience for our film, we decided to create a questionnaire to find ot what people like in a film. Along with this I have created a digital poll here on my blog.

Below is the questionnaire that we handed out.



And the poll can be found in the top left hand corner of the blog.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

In order for us to get to grips with some of the equipment and software we would be using in our final piece, we decided to make a short preliminary piece. We chose a small skit about a man trying to end poverty with a concert, a la Bob Geldof and Live Aid.

To prepare for the shoot, we sat down with some storyboard sheets and created a shot by shot telling of our story. This made things far easier when it came to the shoot. In total this took around an hour, during which we planned 8 shots. Each shot had a picture of what would be in the frame and what would be said, if anything.
During the shoot itself, we had an initial problem in finding a location to shoot in. We wasted some valuable time walking around and looking for a secluded area, eventually finding an empty classroom within our school grounds. With this hiccup out of the way, we moved into a relatively smooth running shoot, there were the inevitable re-takes after laughter but by the end of the shoot we had become far more professional as actors. To create the film, we used two members of the group as cameramen and the remaining two members as actors. Our limited resources meant we could only use handheld shots because we had no tripod. This meant that some of our shots looked very shaky, however now that we have seen just how shaky, we will invest in a tripod for our final piece. The quality of our picture isn’t too high either because we used mini DV cameras, however we have little choice but to do so again for our final piece as new cameras would be very expensive.

After shooting our raw footage, we had to edit it. To do this we used Macbook Pro’s which were loaded with Final Cut Express. This software allowed us to edit the basic footage we had captured, into the logical sequence we needed to create the story. We removed our outtakes using markers to include the footage we wanted. The whole process was very easy and we had a completed video within one to two hours. This even gave us time to add credits, fades at the beginning and end of the film, and to add the theme tune. We chose to use Green Onions by Booker T And The MG’s, as it was an instrumental song which required little manipulation to be used in the video. We merely lowered its volume and then raised it again for the ending of the piece.
If we were to shoot the piece again, I think we would have researched available locations a lot more, so as to save us the time we spent walking around just searching for a location. We would probably also invest in a tripod to improve the quality of our shots.

Overall the preliminary video was very easy to create and I believe a good stepping-stone for when we create our final piece. It has given us vital experience in creating and editing films and has also told us we need to be far more prepared in terms of equipment and locations when it comes to making our final piece.

Preliminary Sequence

This is the preliminary sequence we shot to gain experience in film techniques. It is entitled "Hunger".

Preliminary Task Preparation

In order to prepare for our preliminary task we used a storyboarding session to decide on a plot and to turn that plot into a series of shots for our piece.

When storyboarding, we took the basic plotline from the flowchart and gave it depth. We then picked out individual shots, rough sketches of frames and any dialougue or sound which would be heard during the shot. The results are shown below.

Initial Ideas

Having done some research into locations for our basic plotline, we confirmed that our ideas are possible to translate into a great film. Our next step was to gather together our ideas into a tighter plotline. We did this initiially by using a flow chart of the story. This will be very useful to refer back to during our next step, storyboarding.

Location, location, location!

During our half term break, we took a small excursion around Windsor in order to find locations for shooting our film. Some of the photos are shown below.


The picture above is of the view from my car as we drove along the road which we intend to use in our car chase. This is a likely shot for the final cut of our film because we believe that it will capture a good view of the car we will be chasing.

The next shot is of the forest where we intend to dig a whole for a body. The location is suitable because of it's secluded nature and also because of its soft soil.



We hope to have our killer emerge into the car park below in order to chase the phtographer who saw him with his last victim. It has lots of space and is at the end of the long road which our chase will take place on.



We alsdo made the following video to show some of the final locations we chose and then uploaded all of the photos to a MobileMe page.



http://gallery.me.com/oliclubb/100039

Opening Sequence Analysis 2 - The Bone Collector

The film opening I have chosen to write about is The Bone Collector. It is the 1999 film adaptation of Jeffery Deaver’s 1997 novel of the same name. It stars Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie as the main characters. Washington plays Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic who works in the Crime Scene Investigation unit of the New York Police Department and Jolie plays Amelia Donaghy, a regular street cop who happens to find the first victim the killer.
The film opens with some credits showing the main people involved in the film. As these are showing on the screen, the background shows blurry lights moving around in a disorientating manner. Every so often during this illustrations from novels appear. The illustrations seem like nothing out of the ordinary at this stage in the film but in fact have much relevance later on in the story. Whilst these titles are showing, slow tempo string music can be heard. It is an eerie sound which is far from upbeat and gives a clue to the dark plot of the film. The next part of the credits sequence shows the tile of the film and a few quick flashes of a strange monkey key ring that is suspended and swinging. This is once again nothing out of the ordinary until later in the story when the audience learns about where the item is and who it belongs to. After this we see a few more titles showing some of the smaller roles in the film and again images are shown in the background. They include the front and back covers of a crime scene analysis book by Lincoln Rhyme, and some photos of dead bodies.

The background images of ht e titles suddenly become the New York skyline at night and when the last credit has shown, Lincoln Rhyme steps into the frame. Sirens can be heard and there are flashing lights which (having seen the books and pictures in the titles) indicate to the that this is a crime scene. Rhyme walks into the crime scene and asks a colleague how things look. He is then told about the body of policeman which has been found 300 yards down an abandoned tunnel. Rhyme is the epitome of professional and remains unfazed by this, continuing walking into the tunnel, flipping on his torch as things get dark.

The camera then fades to a shot of Lincoln crawling through a small gap in the tunnel. The fade here indicates the passage of time between Lincoln walking down the tunnel and him reaching this point where he must crawl on his stomach. A close up of Lincoln crawling shows strain in his face, indicating just how secluded the area is and raising questions of how a murderer could place a body here. As Lincoln emerges into a small clearing where the body is, the camera moves into slow motion and we hear a heartbeat as Lincoln moves to examine the body. Rolling the head of the victim around so that he can see the face, Lincoln reveals his own face on the victim. A loud clang is heard followed by someone shouting “watch out!” and the camera then cuts to the top of the clearing which shows a large concrete beam falling down towards Lincoln, he looks up (as does the camera in a POV shot) in time to see it coming towards him but can take no evasive action and a large thud is heard as the beam hits the floor. Suddenly Lincoln wakes up in bed and we learn that these events had all been a flashback explaining how Lincoln Rhyme became the quadriplegic he is today. The flashback of Lincoln in his prime, positions the audience to feel sorry for him and also makes them respect his professionalism as he is clearly very focused on his job. According to Roland Barthes’ Hermeneutic Code, this flashback is a typical Partial Answers part of the story. Some of the plot (the reason Lincoln is bed bound) is revealed to the audience but the reveal asks further questions. Did the beam fall, or was it dropped? Was the killer ever caught? All of these questions are raised by the opening and hopefully answered by the end.

Opening Sequence Analysis 1 - A Clockwork Orange

The film I have chosen to write is Stanley Kubrick’s 1972 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel about a dystopian future, A Clockwork Orange. Upon its release, A Clockwork Orange had great reviews but was surrounded by a large amount of controversy because of it’s graphic depiction of violence and rape. Kubrick’s received death threats over his film and then took the drastic step of removing it from circulation in British cinema. After Kubrick’s death in 1999, the film was eventually re released in 2000.
The opening sequence of Clockwork is one of cinema’s most iconic. Different coloured slides show while long drawn out organ notes play during the credit sequence. The first camera shot we see is of Alex (the protagonist) sat in The Korova Milk Bar. The shot is an extreme close up of Alex’s eye, showing the make up on his eyelashes. This constructs Alex as a mysterious character because it is counter typical for men to wear eye make up. This is a common trait of a thriller in that they do not often reveal a lot about their character in the opening sequence. The camera then begins to zoom out and reveal more about the surroundings and Alex himself.

As the camera zooms out, Alex begins to narrate to the audience. He describes how he and his friends, Pete, Dim and George are sat in the milk bar, preparing to go out to partake in some “ultra violence”. The narration is very monotonic and therefore constructs Alex as someone who is comfortable with violence. Alex also speaks of The Milk Bar. He speaks of how the milk they serve is laced with narcotics and gives him the kick he needs just before he goes out to commit his horrendous acts of crime. The zoom continues until all of Alex’s droogs are in view, along with much of the milk bar. The entire scene has the intention of disorientating the viewer by showing them a very unfamiliar environment. The clothes of the characters are not like anything any audience would have seen before, be they from 1972 or the present day. The décor of the bar is very strange too. Instead of the traditional four-legged coffee table, the droogs are sat at sculptures of naked women in some form of crab position. The walls are decorated black with “nadsat” graffiti written over them. Nadsat is the name given to the many colloquialisms Burgess created in his novel and it is another technique used to disorientate the viewer. Uncertainty about what the language around them says, creates some fear in the viewer because of their lack of knowledge about the situation surrounding them.

This scene is very stereotypical of the thriller genre in that in not revealing a lot about the setting, characters and plots, the film places the viewer in an uneasy situation. This keeps the viewer very interested as they cannot predict a lot about what they will see next and therefore cannot become comfortable. However the long take and zoom out camera shot is counter typical of the genre. Thrillers will usually use a high tempo to their cuts so Clockwork's rejection of this idea is bound to be unsettling for those who are used to a more traditional thriller format.

The New Home Of Manflick Productions

This is the first entry to my blog, which I will use to document my progress as I create my Media Coursework Film.