Planning - Filming issue

We were due to start filming on the 29th of December. Unfortunately, we had to cancel this date due to all the cast being unable to make it. This change in schedule made us reconsider casting in which we thought using Malachi as the jock would be a bad idea as he lives too far away from the set location.

After a long discussion on Facebook with my team, we decided the other person we could use for the jock is Ton Wentink as he lives closer, has a GCSE in drama performance and, like Malachi, has the right build for a "jock".

Planning - The script

My team and I have been making plans and putting together ideas for a script. We then used Adobe story to create the final piece, which made it look professional and tidy;

Planning - title opening practice

This is a practice animated title screen which my team created using music made on garage band and text from from http://www.fontspace.com/ in which was put together using final cut express.

Planning - creating the opening music

My associate Alfie was assigned to the role of creating the opening music for our film opening, in which he practised this using GarageBand as it was easy to use and had a large variety of instruments.

  

Planning - Typography mood board

This is the research my team looked into in terms of finding a good font that would suit the genre and sub-genre conventions. These fonts fit in well with the conventions of slasher as the fonts are ridged and appear to be slashed onto the screen. The font typography is important to get right as it tells the target audience about the genre (and sub-genre) of the film and gives hints towards the narrative. 

Planning - incidental music/ sound effects

In order to create good tension and atmosphere, my job was to look into some incidental music and sound effects to give us ideas for creating some good incidental music/ sfx of our own.

I found some of these clips on;

http://incompetech.com/ (for the incidental music) 

http://www.freesound.org/ (for the sfx) 

here are some print screens of the clips I found on these websites;

These clips are also available on youtube. Here is a small sample that my team and I felt we were inspired by;

Planning - assigning new jobs

After we had completed all the jobs set for the planning deadline (e.g. makeup, planning permission, etc) we set ourselves up new jobs to keep up the pace so we could stay on top for our filming and planning. During lessons we had a team meeting and agreed that the following would do each jobs;

Charlotte was to set up to do researching into typography for our title screen.

Alfie was to complete the script writing and create a theme tune opening for our film. 

I was to research into the incidental music and sound effects for our film opening.

Planning - Film schedule

This is our current schedule for our film opening. Any changes made will be added and edited if necessary.  

Planning - changing the name

For a while, we decided to stick to "The Conductor" as we felt the title related to the antagonist and suited well in terms of the theme of trains, which worked well with the setting of an abandoned train track. We then came up with a better name in which we felt was a more suited title that refers to the location rather than the antagonist, and still has a creepy tone to it. 

Our new title is called Tracks of damnation which we all felt was a better titled and  sounded less "boring" than the original title.

Planning - Makeup

For our corpse, we needed to come up with an idea for what makeup we'd need to use in order to create a realistic effect. We had to consider that the makeup couldn't be too gory as it needed to suit audiences for a classified 15 rated film. To get an idea about what bruises should look like, I created a mood-board of bruises other people have created using makeup;

After getting a good idea of what they look like, I researched on youtube how to create my own fake bruises;

Here are the images of my own makeup bruises (which didn't practice on the actor used in the film, but my sister);

To get this effect I used two different shades of eyeshadow; One in which uses the darkest tone of purple on the pallet and one uses a greeny black. I also used a small amount of eyeliner to make a darker effect; 

To then add to the gore, I used the ketchup mixed with food colour in which was featured as special effects in a previous post;

Planning - storyboard

This is the real story board plan of our film opening "tracks of damnation";

Planning - asking the target audience group

These are the videos of my team asking the target audience group the questions posted in the previous post;

Planning - Questions for target audience focus group

My team gathered together a group of people who are in the correct age range for our film. They asked the target audience questions relating to the film and they asked them if they had any improvement ideas which could benefit the final outcome of the film opening. The questions they asked were;

1) Do you think that the narrative is something along the lines of what you would conventionally expect from a horror or a Slasher film?

2) Would this film appeal to the target audience?

3) Please explain your answer.

4) In a horror film, what aspects are important to an opening?

5) After watching the opening to this film would it convince you to continue watching the rest of the film?

6) Would you want to see lots of gore and violence in this film?

7) What elements would you like to see in a Horror/ Slasher film opening?

8) Do you have any suggestions of things to include in our Slasher film opening?

9) Are there any elements of our film opening that you feel we should not include?

10) Whom would you recommend this film to?

11) Why?

Planning - group discussion

This is a discussion me and my team engaged in and we filmed it so we could return to the ideas discussed later on.

Planning - special effects

Initially, we decided to make fake blood for our special effects. We did this by researching this on Youtube and stumbled across a helpful video on how to make fake blood;

However, we then discovered that corn syrup (ingredient used for the fake blood) wasn't available in the UK unless you were to make your own, so I decided to attempt to make my own corn syrup using the recipe below;

As shown below, I tried to create the corn syrup but it failed;

What went wrong was the sugar used crystallised at the surface and then the mixture ended up going solid (as seen below);

As an alternative, it has been suggested to go back to basics and use ketchup for fake blood effects. To do this involves a lot less effort which is a mixture of ketchup and red/blue food colouring depending on how dark the colour needs to be;

As seen above, i have used two different colour to get different shades with the ketchup. Until further alternatives have been suggest, this will be used for the blood special effects.

Planning - casting auditions

So we could get a better idea about how the actors would perform on set, we got them each to do an unscripted audition to reflect their characters and so we could judge and be certain that we chose the right choice of actors for our films. We felt we didn't need an audition for the killer as his role requires no lines to perform so he automatically got the role;

Sophie Paul (drama queen)

Edward Morgan (geek/nerd)

Malachi Dempsey-Clark (jock/thug)

Planning - call sheet information

Call sheet 1

Date and time; Saturday 3rd January 

Location; Chacombe 

Cast; Edward Morgan, Malachi Dempsey-Clark, Sophie Paul, Joe James

Props; camera, tripod, white mask for antagonist, axe, fake blood. 

Costume; 

Sophie- colourful clothing, Doc Martins 

Edward- purple zip up hoodie, Runescape t-shirt, jeans and trainers 

Malachi- green and white jersey top, leather jacket, dark jeans and brown boots.

Makeup; no makeup for Joe, Mal and Ed, Sophie needs bright colourful eyeliner.

Call sheet 2

Date and time; Monday 5th January 

Location; Chacombe 

Cast; Edward Morgan, Malachi Dempsey-Clark, Sophie Paul, Joe James

Props; camera, tripod, white mask for antagonist, axe, fake blood. 

Costume; 

Sophie- colourful clothing, Doc Martins 

Edward- purple zip up hoodie, Runescape t-shirt, jeans and trainers 

Malachi- green and white jersey top, leather jacket, dark jeans and brown boots.

Makeup; no makeup for Joe and Ed, Sophie needs bright colourful eyeliner and Mal might need to have some fake bruises and cuts to play the role of the dead body. 

Planning - call sheet

This is the call sheet template we will use for our cast. This will inform them on the dates, location, makeup, props and cast needed on the day of our filming. Further posts with call sheet information are to follow.

Planning - Costumes

With costumes, we had to reflect the characters persona in their outfits in terms of cliques and stereotypical assumptions. To make sure we would be able to do this, I sketched out the costumes for each of the characters and gave them to each of the cast to make sure it was okay and whether they had the right outfits to recreate what I drew;

Joe James (antagonist, killer)

Sketch;

real costume; 

With Joe's costume (as seen in the photo) some of the props he needs for his character were unavailable at the time of the photo being taken such as his mask and axe.

Malachi Dempsey-Clark (Jock/thug) 

Sketch; 

Real costume; 

In terms of footwear, we decided that we weren't fussed as long as it was modern footwear which was considered to be "trendy" and "casual".

Edward Morgan (geek/nerd)

sketch;

When sketching the outfit for the geek, my team and I had two possible ideas in terms of costume. The first idea was more "traditional" stereotypical look;

The second idea was more of a modern day stereotype of a geek; 

Real costume; 

In the end, we went for a more modern day geek as we thought it would connect better with the audience, and we felt the "traditional" look was too comical and wouldn't be taken seriously.

Sophie Paul (drama queen)

Sketch; 

Real costume;

Again with footwear, Sophie will be wearing her yellow Doc Martins which, along with the rest of her outfit, reflects on her trendy assets and clique values.

Planning - draft storyboard

So we can get the narrative right for our film opening, we have created a draft storyboard so we can plan out different shots, how long they will take as well as whether sound/incidental music is necessary in that scene. This way, we can make mistakes and re plan things that we believe wont work as well and come up with an accurate narrative that sticks to the fixed elements of the sub-genre and has good timing.

Planning - permission

This is a print screen of a draft email that we will be sending to Northamptonshire county council to get permission to film at our location in Chacombe. We included a birds eye view of the place we are filming to give the council an idea of where we are filming. We will go over this email to look for any improvements and then send it off to the council.