Monday, 28 December 2009
Yet ANOTHER Scheduling Conflict
After all, Tom in our group asked about nine people to be the lead character, and apparently now it isn't Josh Jackson anymore, it is now going to be Rory Skeoch.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Scheduling Conflict
Our protagonist, who was meant to be played by Alex Poynter, has had to be changed. This is because Alex has an exam on the day, so we have recast someone in our year as the protagonist, Josh Jackson. I have a feeling this may work out better than before.
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Monday, 14 December 2009
Cast List
Main Protagonist:
-Rory Skeoch
Victims:
-Elly Sams
-Gabby Meech
-Lottie Tolhurst
-Lukas Dressler
-Oscar Mitchell-Heggs
-Cate Hoare
-Bea Campbell
-Gemma Dyer
-Lainy Black
-Jamie Hajigeorgiou
Props and Materials List
Set Design Requirements
-Wooden Planks (Provided)
We needed these to create the boarded up effect on the window.
-Wall Paper (Provided)
We used this to make the inside of the room look like bricks.
-White Paint (Provided)
We used this to whitewash the walls of the second room
General Props
-Fake Blood - £7 (Alex)
We used a lot of this to put on all our dead bodies.
-Metal Framed Bed - £70 (Tamara)
This is the bed that we wrecked that the protagonist woke up on.
-General Ruinable Clothes - £30 (Tamara)
These were the clothes we bought that we could wreck and cover in blood so that our original cast didn't have to wreck any of their own stuff.
Group Roles
Tom Warhurst - Director
-Props List
-Costumes
-Sound
-Location
-Set Design
-Film Poster
Tamara Middleton - Producer and Assistant Director
-Props List
-Costumes
-Cast List
-Shooting Schedule
-Group Roles
-Production Portfolio
JJ Benzimra - Editor and Head of Photography
-Equipment
-Film Poster
-Lighting
-Final Cut Editing
-Logo of RedRum Productions (Original Name)
Alex Roberts - Executive Editor and Head of Lighting
-Storyboards
-Shooting Schedule
-Sound
-Final Cut Editing
-Props List
-Costumes
-Sound
-Location
-Set Design
-Film Poster
Tamara Middleton - Producer and Assistant Director
-Props List
-Costumes
-Cast List
-Shooting Schedule
-Group Roles
-Production Portfolio
JJ Benzimra - Editor and Head of Photography
-Equipment
-Film Poster
-Lighting
-Final Cut Editing
-Logo of RedRum Productions (Original Name)
Alex Roberts - Executive Editor and Head of Lighting
-Storyboards
-Shooting Schedule
-Sound
-Final Cut Editing
Friday, 11 December 2009
Production Company
I think our film would be invested in and produced by a small independant film company. Such as Warp Films. This is purely because our film is only a short film, similar to the original Saw film (Saw 0.5) which was only nine minutes long. Our film isn't particularly high budget and it has very little dialogue, so A-List actors aren't really required.
Target Audience
Our target audience consist mainly of teenagers and people in their early twenties. There is no real specific social class this film is aimed at as the film doesn't feature any specific social class. This film is probably targeted mainly at men, abiding by the stereotype, because it may be a bit squeemish for girls. It should be for people who are in for a thrill, and for people that have an appetite for destruction. This film definately encourages uncomfortable audience voyeurism.
Storyboard
This story board was relatively basic and we decided to use this because it made shooting a lot easier and once we had all these shots it worked, and it also made editing very easy.
Treatment
This idea has changed so much since our original synopsis, this is the plot we will be sticking to as it leaves room for a cliffhanger.
ACT I
·In the first sequence we are introduced to our tragic protagonist, Deacon, he is distressed, he finds himself in a delirious state on a medical bed, inside a dimly lit room, barely alive and heavily drugged. The only light he can see is coming from a nearby furnace. He decides to get up. He stumbles, drunk by fatigue, into a table. This is where he bumps accidently into a light chord hanging on a metal chain. He pulls the chain, and the light hurts his eyes. For the brief second he can see, before the lights flash out, he sees blood and scratches on the walls. He panics and starts to breathe heavily. He stumbles around, and finds his way into the next room. Here the floor is wet. He bumps into another table. On this table he finds an old torch, which is barely working. He shines it briefly on what appears to be a corpse. He approaches the body, and gets close to the body’s face. Suddenly the bodies’ eyes flash open. We realise that there are more than one body in the room, then all the bodies’ in the room try to scream although, they do have their mouths stitched closed. Suddenly he is hit on the back of the head, and he lapses into unconsciousness.
ACT II
·He awakens in the same state as before, on a bed, in a different room. Now he finds himself hooked up to all sorts of aged medical equipment. He attempts to pulls one of the needles out of his arm. Suddenly a deep, evil and ominous voice comes from somewhere in the room: that says “Baaaad idea”. Deacon is increasingly stressed, again he begins to breathe heavily, he is wild eyed and sweating. He tries to scream: “MMmmmmmm!!” but is unable to and discovers that his mouth is stitched together also. Some of the stitches rip open and Deacon exclaims “Who Are You?!” To which he gets no apparent answer. Although he doesn’t want to, he pulls several needles out of his arm. Blood begins to pour out of his veins. And he lapses into unconsciousness once more, and as his eyes begin to close, a looming figure walk awkwardly towards his bedside.
Act III
·The sequence opens with Deacon awakening, he is alive, barely. He is on a chair, but he is not attached to any sort of equipment, although he has a large gash in the side of his head. He is in a windowless, door less room. The only furniture inside is an antique wooden dining chair and an antique lamp. He surveys the room; he sees something written in one corner of the room. He stumbles over there, on his hands and knees. This message read: “Her blood will tell the way” and then some arrows pointing to back to where he was sitting. Behind his chair, he sees the feint outline of a dead body. He sees a wedding ring, and note clutched in its hand. He crawls over to the body. In his stupor, he grabs the note out of the hand. On the note it read “Love is boundless, get out whilst you can”, he then saw that the ring on the body was that of his wife. He screams and begins sobbing violently. He then sees his wives face and closes her eyes with his hands. He shifts his wife’s wait and underneath her there is another note that reads, “Adultery is a sin. The path of redemption begins here” he then grabs the lamp and repeatedly hits his wife’s face. Blood begins to come out of her head. It falls on the floor and lights come up in the whole room, revealing a trap door in the corner. He runs up to it and opens it. He runs frantically through a tunnel and breaks open the door at the end. He falls through. As he looks up he is greeted by the moonlight. He is now at a roadside. On the sign, in blood, it reads, “Take the hard way out” with an arrow pointing downwards. Underneath it lays a shotgun. He stumbles over there, still hysteric. He picks it up and sees that it has one round in it. He cocks it. The screen goes black, and all we hear is a gunshot.
ACT I
·In the first sequence we are introduced to our tragic protagonist, Deacon, he is distressed, he finds himself in a delirious state on a medical bed, inside a dimly lit room, barely alive and heavily drugged. The only light he can see is coming from a nearby furnace. He decides to get up. He stumbles, drunk by fatigue, into a table. This is where he bumps accidently into a light chord hanging on a metal chain. He pulls the chain, and the light hurts his eyes. For the brief second he can see, before the lights flash out, he sees blood and scratches on the walls. He panics and starts to breathe heavily. He stumbles around, and finds his way into the next room. Here the floor is wet. He bumps into another table. On this table he finds an old torch, which is barely working. He shines it briefly on what appears to be a corpse. He approaches the body, and gets close to the body’s face. Suddenly the bodies’ eyes flash open. We realise that there are more than one body in the room, then all the bodies’ in the room try to scream although, they do have their mouths stitched closed. Suddenly he is hit on the back of the head, and he lapses into unconsciousness.
ACT II
·He awakens in the same state as before, on a bed, in a different room. Now he finds himself hooked up to all sorts of aged medical equipment. He attempts to pulls one of the needles out of his arm. Suddenly a deep, evil and ominous voice comes from somewhere in the room: that says “Baaaad idea”. Deacon is increasingly stressed, again he begins to breathe heavily, he is wild eyed and sweating. He tries to scream: “MMmmmmmm!!” but is unable to and discovers that his mouth is stitched together also. Some of the stitches rip open and Deacon exclaims “Who Are You?!” To which he gets no apparent answer. Although he doesn’t want to, he pulls several needles out of his arm. Blood begins to pour out of his veins. And he lapses into unconsciousness once more, and as his eyes begin to close, a looming figure walk awkwardly towards his bedside.
Act III
·The sequence opens with Deacon awakening, he is alive, barely. He is on a chair, but he is not attached to any sort of equipment, although he has a large gash in the side of his head. He is in a windowless, door less room. The only furniture inside is an antique wooden dining chair and an antique lamp. He surveys the room; he sees something written in one corner of the room. He stumbles over there, on his hands and knees. This message read: “Her blood will tell the way” and then some arrows pointing to back to where he was sitting. Behind his chair, he sees the feint outline of a dead body. He sees a wedding ring, and note clutched in its hand. He crawls over to the body. In his stupor, he grabs the note out of the hand. On the note it read “Love is boundless, get out whilst you can”, he then saw that the ring on the body was that of his wife. He screams and begins sobbing violently. He then sees his wives face and closes her eyes with his hands. He shifts his wife’s wait and underneath her there is another note that reads, “Adultery is a sin. The path of redemption begins here” he then grabs the lamp and repeatedly hits his wife’s face. Blood begins to come out of her head. It falls on the floor and lights come up in the whole room, revealing a trap door in the corner. He runs up to it and opens it. He runs frantically through a tunnel and breaks open the door at the end. He falls through. As he looks up he is greeted by the moonlight. He is now at a roadside. On the sign, in blood, it reads, “Take the hard way out” with an arrow pointing downwards. Underneath it lays a shotgun. He stumbles over there, still hysteric. He picks it up and sees that it has one round in it. He cocks it. The screen goes black, and all we hear is a gunshot.
Storyboard
Our group finalized our storyboard earlier this week. We have a 6 page storyboard detailing all the info about our lighting, sound, dramatizations and to a certain extent our set design. We elected to have no dialogue, just the sounds of breaking glass and heavy panting. We also finalized our production company name and design. I rendered our logo which is called REDRUM productions.
Research
I think the main source of our inspiration, if you can call it that, came from the Saw films and the Hostel films. Both of these films contain elements of things that we want to incorperate in our thriller. However, the setting is very blair-witchesque.
SAW
A young man, David, is in an interrogation room talking to an unnamed, unsympathetic police officer. David is in handcuffs, and he has blood on his face and shirt. He is smoking a cigarette. He tells the officer that after he finished his work as an orderly at the hospital, he was knocked unconscious and taken to a large room.
Inside the room, David was strapped to a chair with a large, rusty metal device locked onto his head. To his left was a small television, which began playing a video showing a frightening puppet, named Billy, that tells him that the device on his head is a "reverse beartrap", which is hooked into his jaws and will pry his face open with great force if he does not unlock it in time. The puppet tells David that the only key to unlock the device is in the stomach of his dead cellmate (Dean Francis).
David is able to break free of his bonds, but by doing so he sets off a timer on the back of the device. Across the room, he finds the body that the puppet mentioned, but also finds that the man is actually alive but under paralysis. David panics and slices into the man's stomach anyway. After finding the key, David unlocks the device and throws it to the ground, just as it snaps open. David escapes death from the device.
David begins screaming and weeping in horror. At the entrance to the room, the puppet from the video appears on a tricycle. He congratulates David on surviving, and tells him that he has proven he is no longer ungrateful for being alive.
The movie ends with the police officer asking "Are you grateful, David?" causing the young man to again break down. As the end credits begin to roll, a CGI replica of the bathroom used later in the full Saw film is shown, although with some differences. A small peephole is shown with an eye visible behind it, which was a concept reused in another trap in Saw.
The Blair Witch Project
In 1994, film students Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joashua Leonard set out to produce a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch. They travel to Burkittsville (formerly Blair), Maryland and interview locals about the legend of the Blair Witch. The locals tell them of a hermit named Rustin Parr that kidnapped seven children and brought them to his house in the woods. Parr brought the children into his basement in twos. He felt that their eyes were staring into his soul when he was being watched, so he would kill one child while the other faced a corner. He would then kill the corner child. Parr eventually turned himself in to the police, later pleading insanity, saying that the spirit of a witch killed in the 18th century had convinced him to kill the seven children. The trio also interviews Mary Brown, an eccentric older woman who tells them that she had an encounter with the Blair Witch as a young girl.
The next day, the students begin to explore the woods near Burkittsville to look for evidence of the Blair Witch. Along the way, a fisherman warns them that the woods are haunted. The students hike to Coffin Rock, where five men were found ritually murdered in the nineteenth century, and then camp for the night. The next day they move deeper into the woods, despite being uncertain of their exact location on the map. They eventually locate what appears to be an old cemetery with seven small cairns. They set up camp nearby and then return to the cemetery after dark. One of the students accidentally disturbs a cairn, and Heather hastily repairs it. Later, they hear strange cracking sounds in the darkness but cannot locate the source. The following day they attempt to return to their vehicle, but fail to find it before darkness falls and are forced to set camp. That night, they again hear cracking noises, but cannot see anything. The next morning they find three small cairns have been built around their tent during the night. As they continue to try and find their way out of the woods, Heather realizes that her map is missing, and Mike later reveals that he kicked it into a creek out of frustration the previous day. Josh and Heather attack Mike out of a fit of intense rage. They then realize they are now thoroughly lost, and decide to simply head south. Soon, they discover a multitude of humanoid stick figures made of woven sticks and branches suspended from trees. Unknown to the others, Heather takes one before they leave. That night, they hear more strange noises, including the sounds of children, and unknown entities brush against the sides of their tent. They flee their tent in panic and hide in the dark woods until dawn. Upon returning to their tent, they find that their possessions have been rifled through, and Josh's equipment is covered with slime. As the day wears on, they realize that they are completely disoriented and going in circles, and again set camp.
The next morning, Josh has disappeared. After trying in vain to find him, Mike and Heather eventually break camp and slowly move on. That night, they hear Josh's screams in the darkness, but are not able to find him. The next morning, Heather finds a bundle of sticks and fabric outside their tent. Later inspection reveals it to contain blood-soaked scraps of clothing and what appears to be bloody human teeth and tissue, but she does not mention this to Mike.
That night, Heather makes a tape of herself apologizing to the others and her family and breaks down crying while she says, "we're gonna die out here tonight...". Later, they hear Josh's agonized cries for help again, but this time they follow them to an abandoned house in the woods. Mike races throughout the house while Heather tries to follow, and claims he hears Josh in the basement. He follows the sound and after what seems to be a struggle, goes silent and drops his camera to the floor. Heather then catches up and notices he is not answering her calls. She then enters the basement looking for both men, and her camera sees a glimpse of Mike facing the corner. Then Heather drops her camera, and her screams suddenly fall silent.
SAW
A young man, David, is in an interrogation room talking to an unnamed, unsympathetic police officer. David is in handcuffs, and he has blood on his face and shirt. He is smoking a cigarette. He tells the officer that after he finished his work as an orderly at the hospital, he was knocked unconscious and taken to a large room.
Inside the room, David was strapped to a chair with a large, rusty metal device locked onto his head. To his left was a small television, which began playing a video showing a frightening puppet, named Billy, that tells him that the device on his head is a "reverse beartrap", which is hooked into his jaws and will pry his face open with great force if he does not unlock it in time. The puppet tells David that the only key to unlock the device is in the stomach of his dead cellmate (Dean Francis).
David is able to break free of his bonds, but by doing so he sets off a timer on the back of the device. Across the room, he finds the body that the puppet mentioned, but also finds that the man is actually alive but under paralysis. David panics and slices into the man's stomach anyway. After finding the key, David unlocks the device and throws it to the ground, just as it snaps open. David escapes death from the device.
David begins screaming and weeping in horror. At the entrance to the room, the puppet from the video appears on a tricycle. He congratulates David on surviving, and tells him that he has proven he is no longer ungrateful for being alive.
The movie ends with the police officer asking "Are you grateful, David?" causing the young man to again break down. As the end credits begin to roll, a CGI replica of the bathroom used later in the full Saw film is shown, although with some differences. A small peephole is shown with an eye visible behind it, which was a concept reused in another trap in Saw.
The Blair Witch Project
In 1994, film students Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joashua Leonard set out to produce a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch. They travel to Burkittsville (formerly Blair), Maryland and interview locals about the legend of the Blair Witch. The locals tell them of a hermit named Rustin Parr that kidnapped seven children and brought them to his house in the woods. Parr brought the children into his basement in twos. He felt that their eyes were staring into his soul when he was being watched, so he would kill one child while the other faced a corner. He would then kill the corner child. Parr eventually turned himself in to the police, later pleading insanity, saying that the spirit of a witch killed in the 18th century had convinced him to kill the seven children. The trio also interviews Mary Brown, an eccentric older woman who tells them that she had an encounter with the Blair Witch as a young girl.The next day, the students begin to explore the woods near Burkittsville to look for evidence of the Blair Witch. Along the way, a fisherman warns them that the woods are haunted. The students hike to Coffin Rock, where five men were found ritually murdered in the nineteenth century, and then camp for the night. The next day they move deeper into the woods, despite being uncertain of their exact location on the map. They eventually locate what appears to be an old cemetery with seven small cairns. They set up camp nearby and then return to the cemetery after dark. One of the students accidentally disturbs a cairn, and Heather hastily repairs it. Later, they hear strange cracking sounds in the darkness but cannot locate the source. The following day they attempt to return to their vehicle, but fail to find it before darkness falls and are forced to set camp. That night, they again hear cracking noises, but cannot see anything. The next morning they find three small cairns have been built around their tent during the night. As they continue to try and find their way out of the woods, Heather realizes that her map is missing, and Mike later reveals that he kicked it into a creek out of frustration the previous day. Josh and Heather attack Mike out of a fit of intense rage. They then realize they are now thoroughly lost, and decide to simply head south. Soon, they discover a multitude of humanoid stick figures made of woven sticks and branches suspended from trees. Unknown to the others, Heather takes one before they leave. That night, they hear more strange noises, including the sounds of children, and unknown entities brush against the sides of their tent. They flee their tent in panic and hide in the dark woods until dawn. Upon returning to their tent, they find that their possessions have been rifled through, and Josh's equipment is covered with slime. As the day wears on, they realize that they are completely disoriented and going in circles, and again set camp.
The next morning, Josh has disappeared. After trying in vain to find him, Mike and Heather eventually break camp and slowly move on. That night, they hear Josh's screams in the darkness, but are not able to find him. The next morning, Heather finds a bundle of sticks and fabric outside their tent. Later inspection reveals it to contain blood-soaked scraps of clothing and what appears to be bloody human teeth and tissue, but she does not mention this to Mike.
That night, Heather makes a tape of herself apologizing to the others and her family and breaks down crying while she says, "we're gonna die out here tonight...". Later, they hear Josh's agonized cries for help again, but this time they follow them to an abandoned house in the woods. Mike races throughout the house while Heather tries to follow, and claims he hears Josh in the basement. He follows the sound and after what seems to be a struggle, goes silent and drops his camera to the floor. Heather then catches up and notices he is not answering her calls. She then enters the basement looking for both men, and her camera sees a glimpse of Mike facing the corner. Then Heather drops her camera, and her screams suddenly fall silent.
Finalising Our Idea
Once we had met up for the first time as a team (we being myself, Tamara Middleton, Tom Warhurst and Alex Roberts), we finalised Tom's thriller idea, and incorperated certain elements of all our own thrillers. The plot is outlined in the treatment, which I wrote for this occaison. We also appointed, Tom as the director, Tamara as the Assistant Director, Alex as the Editor and me as the head of photgraphy.
My film idea
My idea for a thriller was about mental ayslum. It is altogether a cliche, but my story centered around how, when abandoned for any given amount of time, the mind can play tricks on you. In my idea, the opening was where a teenage girl was running down an empty corridor, with only a lot of doors, all with the number 6 on them. (As a reference to the number of the beast). It ended with her stumbling into a room devoted to her, with pictures and candles, pretty freaky. Here she turns around and she walks into the man who was chasing her. A man with a burlap sack over his face and a name tag on his very nice oderned suit. Although my idea was greeted pretty well by the class, I decided to back some one elses idea. My audience was that of the typical horror genre, and i would target a small british independant film production company.
What Is A Thriller?
Thrillers' main objectives are to promote fear and emote anxiety. Thrillers rely heavily on comlicated plots, with plenty of twists. It can play on everyday fears (Phonebooth) Or it can be totally unrealistic but still thrilling (Knowing). A thiller captures the audiences attention by creating a sense of enigma or mystery. Most thrillers employ a sub category, such as horror, sci-fi, slasher and pschological. Most thrillers build up tension slowly and then they reveal to the audience what is really happening.
Editing The Preliminary Task
After the initial shooting our preliminary task we edited our video using Final Cut Pro Editing Package. Here we took all of our shots and edited them into order, in the end we chose to have a mixture of a panning shot, some close ups and a wide shot, we also included an establishing shot of the gun. However our camera's microphone port wasn't working at the time. So we had to re-record all the sound in the studio. So in the end it was actually quite funny, because the voices we hear aren't those of the people we had in the preliminary task, but you wouldn't know that because it is quite well dubbed.
Preliminary Task
Today we were sent to our designated places in order to shoot a short movie placed on a storyboard we were given. We were split into groups of four , and we had to find two willing actors , to act out the lead roles.The setup we had to work with was a room with a desk , a gun , handcuffs , a chain of keys. We also had a light , to create differnt effects . We didnt use the light we were given instead we used a normal desk lamp as it gave off a more glarey feel . And it felt like it was based late in the eveing .We chose our girl to be sitting down at the desk , with a sheet of paper and a pen in hand . As she sat there writing a man opens a door and approaches her . As he walks over to the desk he leans down and put his hand forward and lays down a gun on the desk . There is then dialogue and the man stands up and leaves . We started with our wide shots and then we moved onto over the shoulder ones and lastly doing all the closeups . We took each shot on the story board about 3 or 4 times so we will hopefuylly have alot to work with in the editing suite when we piece all the film together next week . We then had time to go and do some extra shots of the extract . We did some cut aways , some more close ups and even some extreme closeups of the peoples faces and the gun its self . We also added a POV shot of the girl by placing the camera in the position she was and having the male actor look directly at the camera lense .I really enjoyed this task and I think it was alot better than the last one we did last week and defiently more enjoyable , and this has given me a better insight into camera shots , directing , lighting and being a camera man . The 4 most important things for making a movie .
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Introduction to Stills Camera
In our Class, we went outside to capture still images of one another. We subsequently took these photos and put them on Photoshop, and edited them slightly. We got ride of belmishes and spots etc. We also encountered the rule of thirds and used this to make our pictures look a lot more professional, by minimizing the space above our heads and also by making the photo look eye-capturing.
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