Experimenting With Tea Candles

I found some spare tea candles around my room, so I decided to experiment with both the lights, and without the lights. I found that it is better to have a very low amount of light, but not to much so that it does not over saturate, and miss the flickering, and feeling of it.

Our Shot List

Above is the shot list we have prepared. We decided to omit certain details, such as the details costume, because the actors were wearing the same costume the whole time, with the exception as noted. Also we were not quite shore about timings, and decided we should work with different duration of shots, so that we have flexibility when editing

Using Techniques From The Film Phycho

I heard from a friend that a scene from Psycho is similar to our thriller opening sequence.

I obtained a copy, and found the scene which was in question, it is when the son who has killed his mother, and then preserved her, and dresses her up, and talks to her.

I have taken a screen shot of part of the scene (below).

I found it interesting how the man kept talking to her as if she was still alive, this showed his insanity, and the fact that he though that she was still alive, I could consider to use this technique, or use it as influence in filming.

From the scene I learned about how to use angles, composition, and methods of giving our scene the intended effect.
 
 

Testing, and Experimeting With Record Player

In the below video I am just testing out the record player, and all of its functions, to see what would be good for filming. I also looked, at angles and focus to create a different effect.

Importance Of A Shot List

I found the below on the Vimeo website.

"A shot list is a full log of all the shots you want to include in your film; essentially it is a checklist filled with minute details that will give your film a sense of direction and efficiency.
Shot lists help you consider shooting footage based on location and setup; not necessarily in the order of the story. Say your shoot starts at a supermarket, moves to a bank, and ends at the supermarket. With a shot list ready you can more quickly shoot all the scenes at the supermarket first, and then shoot the rest at the bank later on in the day. Simple enough, right?
Below is part of the script from the latest original short Vimeo Man.

It is annotated with shot terminology, a shot list allows you to clearly organize and display these terms. Here is a snippet from our completed shot list.

As you can see, our shot list template includes columns for the scene number, shot number, location, shot description, framing, action/dialogue, actors involved, props needed, and extra notes.

• Scene Number + Shot Number help to break down a scene into a certain number of shots. For each scene we use a number and each shot we use a letter.
• Shot Description should include a subject and an action, for example "Matt bites an apple".
• Framing describes the vantage point from which you choose to shoot and the aspect of your subject you wish to capture. Check out an array of different shot types here.
• Action helps to express camera movement, for example 'Camera dollies towards Vimeo Man' or 'Pan to Sam'.
• Dialogue gives a snippet of the characters conversation within the shot."

In summery, the document says that a shot list consists of all the shots, and can be like a 'check list' of the shots which are required, and consists of every minute detail, which will help with both 'direction, and efficiency' during our shoot. The shot list is also not in the order of the video, but is instead in the order of the shots, the above document put it nicely, that if you are wanting to have a video where the guy walks into a super market, and then in to a bank and back into the super market, the shot list would have the supermarket shots first, and then have the bank shots, this method saves time and money in both transport, and also in the amount of time that you had to pay for your actor. 
 A shot list is essential, because when filming you have limited time available, with actors, props hired, and access requirements. It will also be very useful to have a time schedule, so that the actors only need to be at the location for a limited time.

Researching-Role Of A Camera Operator

I have a interest in camera work, meaning that I would like to do some research into the role, and what the responsibilities of a camera man would be.

   

I  then searched Google for the role of a camera man

I first found out that the correct name for the role is the camera operator. 

There is a large amount of information available on the web currently, below are a number of screen grabs of the role, and responsibility of a camera man. I do have to bear in mind the websites are for people who are working on a full scale production, and our scene is simpler, and will be more easy to conduct, considering we have all come together to make the idea, storyboard, scene outline, and shot list, and I have a good knowledge on all documents.

Location Confirmation

The below screen shot shows us requesting to use a students bedroom for our thriller. If the permission is denied we will have to use our backup.

Getting Hold Of a Record

I realized that I needed to get a record, so I Googled the nearest record shop, but when I arrived I found out that it was shut on Sundays. Fortunately I had a look through, and the owner was having a sort through old records to get rid of, menaing he was more than happy to give me away a record for free. I asked if he had any records that were over 15 years old, and he gave me this vinyl (below), which could be very useful, as a backup, or the actual one we will use.

Response On Request For Costumes

The above email was revived confirming that their will be some costumes available in the tech office to have a look at.

Confirming Actor-Eduarda

The above message was sent to ask if she would be available, and willing to be the backup actor in our thriller.

Confirming Actor-Mike

The above message was sent to ask if he would be available, and willing to be the backup actor in our thriller.

Actors-Final

For the male actor we are using Mike Niland, our teacher. We chose him because firstly he us a young adult, meaning that he looks like he could be the girls brother, and to remove unwanted sexual connotations that could arise. Secondly Mike is our teacher, meaning that he could offer guidance, as well as already being able to take time out of his day.

Mike Niland

Our female actor is Mia Mccallum, she is in our class, meaning that she is aware of the process, and scene outline. She has very smooth skin, making the macro shots appear beautiful, and flawless. Mia is able to take time out of her day

Mia Mccallum

For Our backup actors we would use Eduarda Anguita, and Mike Timson

Costume-Hat

The above hat is in the style of that we would want the man to be wearing, but unfortunately the price is too high meaning we had to find a cheaper alternative. The below hat is almost identical, but is priced much more competitively.

 

Costume- Gloves

We researched into the different gloves that Amazon had to offer.
We searched for some black leather gloves, and we found the below, these were the perfect fit, color, type of leather, and style, but unfortunately on such a tight budget we could not afford these.

The below gloves are a compromise, because they offer a god fit, nice cut, perfect color, and most importantly a good price.

Organising Props-Part 1

We contacted Alastair about the props, and some images for reference, and to help find the appropriate items.

Organising Costume-Part 1

To the right you can see our email sent to the costumes department, and requesting the agreed articles of clothing.
We included a few images for reference, and to help locate the appropriate costumes.

Confirming Actor-Mia

We have sent an email to Mia confirming that she is fine with her being in our thriller.

Here is the email, the girl that we cast for our thriller. She has confirmed that we
can use her and that she is prepared to shoot at any given time. 

Research- Makeup

In our thriller we have shots of make up being applied on the girl. We have looked at different types of make up sets that we can use for our thriller. We have thought of the price and the amount that we want to spend. Here are the following Make up sets:

This make up set seems good and has a lot of props that we can use in our scene.

This seems like a good brush to use because it is unique and it stands out.

This is a good make up set, with it having many different colors.

Prop-Chair

Together we researched into the variety of wooden chairs that we can use for our thriller. We looked at many but narrowed it down to 3 different styles.

We came to a joint decision to just take a chair from the school, as they have many chairs that match these styles.

Prop- Record Player

We were faced with the task of souring a record player.
We thought that Amazon would be good for buying it, as they are reliable, and offer fast delivery.

Above is all of the models that meet our specification, 
Ideally we would want a record player, that is black, and in a briefcase style. We would want to go for the color black, because it connotes that he is a antagonist. The briefcase style was chosen to make it appear as if he travels.

Unfortunately with our limiting budget of £30 for the player we had to compromise and get a model that works, but is not in the ideal style.

With a budget of roughly £30 for the record player we decided to buy the below.
The model would suit or needs, and gives for a retro look, whist having decent reviews.

Below is the order confirmation for the item.

Research Into Audio Delay In Film, and What FPS To Use

Surprisingly there is very little information online regarding the audio delay, and most of the internet is flooded with information regarding how to fix audio synchronisation errors! I did find that you should use a delay of a mili second or less if you are going to create the diegetic sound in a studio, or if you are synchronising audio, the is to replicate the audio delay that you naturally get.

Frame rate	Media	Description
23.98 (23.976) fps	Film; high definition video with NTSC compatibility; NTSC	This is 24 fps slowed down by 99.9% (1000/1001) to easily transfer film to NTSC video. Many high definition video formats (and some SD formats) can record at this speed, and it is usually preferred over true 24 fps because of NTSC compatibility.

I found the above graph on Apple's website, and also some other reputable sites. It states that most people believe that film is is shot on 24 frames per second, it is actually 23.98 FPS. 

The reason for most of the media using this standard is because when audio was introduced to film, creators wanted the media to appear more life like, and less staggered than the previous standard of 16 FPS. 

A frame rate of 60FPS was used in the Hobbit, but received much criticism because of its video game like appearance. 

Minutie Meetings

8.11.15

• We each discussed and presented our ideas to everyone in the group.
• For the next lesson we need to think of everyone's ideas and make points on what we like about them

19.11.15

• We found our thriller idea, girl in room dressing up, however it reveals at the end to show a man dressing her up.
• Everyone in the group should have made a mood board of ideas about the thriller.
• We also had to keep in mind, a backup idea and what it would be.

20.11.15

• We found our backup idea- which is my first thriller idea (the racist serial killer)
• We discussed the age group of our two actors, girl (16-18 years old) and man aged 45+ years
• For Mondays shoot we allocated tasks to each person in the group: Olly will bring his camera and tripod/ Naomi will bring toothbrush and makeup/ Tash will plan the idea and I will direct the shoot and act as the older man.

23.11.15

• We filmed the sequence that we planned
• We used many extreme close-ups
• Reminder: Olly and Naomi, bring in laptops so we can edit

24.11.15

• We discussed pre-production and reflected on the shoot.
• Olly edited the thriller
• Everyone needs to do reflection and pre-production to put on blog.

30.11.15

• Finished making the PowerPoint presentation for thriller
• Olly needs to put paste the moon board on to the  PowerPoint

1.12.15

• Amr is drawing the storyboard
• Natasha need to finish editing the PowerPoint presentation

2.12.15

• Amr still drawing storyboard
• Writing up storyboard information: scene by scene

3.12.15 

• Amr has finished the storyboard
• Olly needs to Photoshop storyboard together
• Rest of the group needs to finish writing notes and information for the storyboard

Research Into The Optimum Introduction Brightness, and Audio.

After researching several sources I found that when you introduce a film you should have the same sound loudness level as you would want it to be throughout the film. When people turn on a film for home media consumption they will just the sound on there device within the first minute of playing. All this means that you should start away with the correct audio level from the start for the next minute or so.  

"Audio is probably the most overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of the filmmaking process"

This means that in my thriller I need to start off with with some audio which will be at the correct  level.

I also found out whilst researching that you should never go over 0db on the levels setting, this is because it will cause distortion, and will result in a poor audio quality. It you have ever heard a explosion scene on youtube you would have noticed that it sounds really distorted, this is because youtube uses a automatic levelling system, that can be overridden, that create a nasty effect. For safety reasons you should not have any peaks above -6db. 

I found this chart online, and I found it useful. 

Overall Mix Level: -10db to -14db

Dialogue: -12db to -15db

Music: -18db to -22db

Sound Effects: -10db to -20db with occasional spikes up to -8db.

Whilst there is not as much information available regarding the brightness, it follows a similar pattern, meaning that it is also fundamental not to start out on something that is too bight, or dark.