production log

Risk assessment: film shoot 13/12/14

For the shoot I will be reqired to take do a risk assesment in order to film in the location I want.

Risks:

- Working with the Jib there is a risk that someone could be struck by it.
- we will be filming outside on a hill, people slipping on wet grass is always a concern
- December weather means that it will be very cold and actors could become ill
- We will be filming in a graveyard, meaning that there will be gravestones everywhere, it is important that nobody trips over one or breaks one.


How I will combat those risks:

- always be aware of when the Jib will be in use, and ensure that at least one member of crew will be making sure it is not heading towards anyone
- whilst working on the hill I have requested that people wear sensable shoes, and only change them out for certain shots. I also stay close to the actors so that if somebody falls I should hopefully be able to catch them.
- all Actors have been asked to Bring coats and I will be bringing a spare coat incase it is needed
- This will be something that the actors/crew will have to do themselves in order to not dismantle any graves.

Previous work and its influence

Last year, as part of my Film studies As, I made a short film about a man who killed a stranger and fed him to his girlfriend. I believe that from this short I learned  many things, such as the importance of lighting and the need for a second camera battery on set.

Aspects of my last film, such as the use of go-pro underwater footage, have been replicated in my newest short due to their effectiveness in the film.

In terms of lighting, for my first film I was skeptical about the use of large lighting rigs, and was lucky to have very bright natural lighting which meant shot looked good. On my new film however i am not so lucky as I have chosen to film in winter (due to the appearance of the sky and the hope that it is a miserable day in England).

Costume and makeup design for film shoot 16/11/2014

Sunday the 16th shoot details in costume.

throughout the day, it was important that Antony (playing the un-named protagonist) looked the part, as shots would be taken that would bring attention to him and would also highlight errors.

For these shots to look effective they reqired the actor to appear to be sweating, as he had just awoken from a dream, this meant that I would need to physically paint sweat (water) onto his head in order to keep continuity and make it appear that he was destressed.

The costume used was a simple black shirt so that it would not draw attention to the shirt, but at the same time connotates his upset and dark nature.

It was also a key plot point that antony could not smile on camera, and many shots were taken whereby his whole face would be in view.

Production Log week: 10/11/2014

This week I will be collecting my leading male actor for the shots that require souly him. These scenes will also hopefully be shot and ready for edit next week for a first draft of the opening sequence.
For the shoot I drew up a shot list and prop requirements:

Shot list and requirements for Sunday 16th shoot

Need: team (camera man, rode mic operator, runners, head of props) medicine bottles, protagonist. Camera equipment should include: camera, tripod, steady-cam, dead cat mic. Request 2 batteries. Lighting also required (one light should do). Protagonist needs. Toothbrush, and pyjamas.

Required rooms at home: bedroom and bathroom. Requires these rooms to be lit also in the event that natural lighting does not work.

Shot list.

shot	scene	location	length	description
Close up	1	bedroom	5	Protagonist sit’s up in bed slowly after a recurring nightmare. Shot
Establishing shot	1	bedroom	5	Protagonist sit’s up in bed. This time shot from the doorway
Close up-tracking shot	1	bedroom	3	Protagonist lies back down. The camera will follow him from the same distance during this shot.
Close up/mid	2	Bathroom	5	Protagonist lifts up head brushing teeth, this shot should be the same speed as the previous one and the same angle.
Mid shot	2	bathroom	10	Protagonist continues cleaning teeth and spits
Extreme close up of the teeth	2	bathroom	5	Close up of the teeth being cleaned
Close up	2	bathroom	5	shot from inside the bathroom cabinate, the protagonist takes a bottle from out of the compartment.
Close up	2	bathroom	5	pill in protagonists hand (this shot will alternate with the next a few times.)

Prodcution log

I have recently started shooting the film, choosing to start with the opening sequence in which we meet the protagonist after he has a nightmare.

The reason for starting with this scene is that it sets up the mood for the rest of the film, as such starting filming with this scene means that everyone involved, myself and the cast included, can get into the right state of mind for the rest of the shoots. Also it makes costume decisions and prop choices easy as I can just refer to this scene.

In preparation for the shoot the room used as the protagonists bedroom has been left with only things that are in the scene. Also around the room is now multiple plugins for lights and space for the crew to stand whilst holding the camera and for the light stand to go.

along with this there will be shooting in the bathroom for the second scene, this would involve many different angles and shooting in such a small room could prove difficult and possible unsafe. in order to combat this I have chosen only to have one crew member with me in order to keep the space empty.

Research into equipment

Features of the canon 550D camera that I will be Working with.: 

• 18.0 effective megapixel CMOS sensor
• 1080p HD video recording at 24p (23.976 fps), 25p (25 fps), and 30p (29.97 fps) with drop frame timing
• 720p HD video recording at 50p (50 Hz) and 60p (59.94 Hz)
• 480p ED video recording at 50p (50 Hz) and 60p (59.94 Hz)
• 3.5mm microphone jack for external microphones or recorders.
• PAL/NTSC video output
• DIGIC 4 image processor
• 14-bit analog to digital signal conversion
• 3.0-inch (76 mm) 3:2 aspect ratio LCD monitor
• Live view mode
• Built-in flash
• Wide, selectable, nine-point AF with centre cross-type sensor extra sensitive at f/2.8
• Four metering modes, using 63-zones: spot, partial, center-weighted average, and evaluative metering.
• Highlight tone priority
• EOS integrated cleaning system
• Internal monaural microphone
• sRGB and Adobe RGB colour spaces
• ISO 100–6,400 expandable to 12,800
• Continuous drive up to 3.7 frame/s (34 images (JPEG), 6 images (raw))
• SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory card file storage
• Raw and large JPEG simultaneous recording
• USB 2.0, HDMI control ( CEC )
• LP-E8 battery
• Approximate weight 0.53 kg (1.2 lb) with battery and card

I will be working with this camera mostly due to it's excellent image quality and my own personal preference to the camera. I will be using a second camera (see below) in order to capture shots I couldn't get with the Canon.

I will also be working with the canon 650D and the canon 700D.

The GoPro Hero 3+.
I will be using the GoPro Hero 4 as my second camera on shoot for shots that would either damage the camera or compact spaces that would be tricky to shoot otherwise.

- The Black Edition has video modes of 1440p48, 1080p60, 960p100 and 720p120 as well as 4Kp15 and 2.7Kp30 and can shoot 12MP stills at up to 30 frames per second

Analysis of previous students work

The Huge Snooze, a film made by Ciaran Davis, is a film noir comedy about a Private Directive named Marchel Malow who finds himself in dangerous circumstances after meeting a woman with an interesting case for him.

The Film is a perfect replica of the Film Noir genre. The lighting, a significant aspect of the genre, is executed well, and post production editing has meant that the black and white is a perfect replica of the age of film Noir.

The use of few characters follows the conventions of a short film, however it does not follow many more as the film itself seems to be more of a trailer/clip from a larger film.

I admire his attention to detail in props, and intend to replicate this into my own work, focusing heavily on background props remaining relevent to the scene and following the idea that "everything is there for a reason".

movie poster analysis

Movie poster analysis

The movie poster for silence of the lambs is un-doubtibly iconic. The Poster features the colourless face of the films star actress Jodie Foster with deep red eyes. The red eye edit emphasises a psychological element to the film as it reflects the idea that the character is witnessing horror throughout the film.

The Moth of the characters lips is one that features in the film, a breed that Buffalo Bill uses to mark out his victims, but what is so iconic is the skull featured on the moth is actually a picture of multiple naked women forming a skull.

Genre theory and short film genres

Analysis of 2 short films

Conventions of a short film

pitch/evidence of films i admire/audience research

A short film production company

Pixar animation studios was founded in 1979 as part of Lucasfilm. The division was then bought from Lucas by Steve jobs and they went on as a company designed to sell PIXAR computers.

This did not work, and no matter how much money Jobs would throw at the company (which led to his eventual ownership through an investment of over $50 million.

However, the animation section of the company was getting success in advertising thanks to John Lasseter (who most would recognize as the creative director of pixar, or as the guy in the hawian shirt).
Lasseter himself had come from Disney, but was fired after promoting computer animation and then joined Lucasfilm.

Since then pixar has been at the forfront of clever short film animations, with their earliest revolving around a simple lamp jumping on a rubber ball (this is now seen in their title). After this they made a series of shorts in order to advertise their skills to production companies. This is common as very often large companies will use short films as a form of promotion, but Pixar have more recently chosen to add a short at the start or end of each of their movies. One recent example was the film "night and day" about two figures who argue over whether day is better than night, giving examples of las Vegas against a party at the beach.

Advertisment for smile a while

Smile a while is a product that the public takes in order to keep their smiles up.

The advertisment will be similar to those for toothpaste we see currently on tv:

The smiles that you see in these adverts often appear fake, and I woud like this element to remain intact through my advert. The advert will feature a voiceover from an actress I have already hired, and will feature (like in the picture above) the lower half of a womans face smiling earily.

Inspiration for this comes from both these toothpast comercials, and also to the advertisments found throughout the popular videogame: Bioshock.

Initial film ideas: Don't forget to smile

Don't forget to smile.

The film is set in a world where everyone is forced to smile. Not just a simple slight curl of the lip, but a full blown, terrifying Grin. Those caught without a smile must live in fear of the Face Changers.

The people who are forced to live under this idea take medication known as: Smile-a-while, a reference to Soma from a brave new world.

We follow a young teenager who can't bring himself to take the medication as it makes him physically sick and is forced to hold up a smile the whole time. This is possible until the tragic news of his grandfather’s death gets to him.

 

At this the smile drops. People start to notice, and he starts having nightmares about the dreaded face changers. He starts to panic and just as he thinks the worst is going to occur a girl, a previous friend of his, turns to him and offers the help him out at this time by talking to him in private and taking on his troubles.

 
Unfortunately she then becomes depressed thinking about it, and the next time that we see her she has been “changed”.

Our protagonist cannot take this and chooses to end his life in a way that would represent it all.

 

History of Short Film

Short films would have originally been a 5-10 minute cartoon before a film, or perhaps a short news-documentary. Such artists as Charlie Chaplin were known for his work in short film, and other silent comedians such as Laurel and Hardy would create shorts to entertain the audience.

In the 1930’s there was a rise in double features which were two short films put together.

Short films took an interesting turn when televisions became household in came the rein of advertisements on TV and these in their own right could be considered short films.

Short films predate feature length productions by over a decade, and they have been used for films as diverse as newsreels, cartoons, advertising, technical films, music promos, corporate video, cine-magazines, sponsored filmmaking, student films, gallery installations and amateur cinematography.

In the modern era, short films are often a way for film students to show off in a visual portfollio which would be entered into films

In the modern era, short films are often a way for film students to show off in a visual portfolio which would be entered into film festivals to win awards.

Currently leading companies have reverted back to a stage where they are creating short cartoons before a film, with Disney leading this with Pixar shorts and their own animated creations such as "the paperman".
Some would even state that the recent Vine uprising would be classed as a collection of short films.

production log week of 08/09/14

Production log

I have come up with the base idea for my film so far and am currently working on the pre-production stages. This means finding cast and crew for the production. getting a shot list together. looking through possible locations and working out what would be best (this should occur after initial story-boarding and before shot list as the list is dependent upon this)

To do this week:
- initial storyboard
- location ideas for scouting at the weekend
-
If possible
- costumes and make-up design
- Actor release forms/cast list
- work out a date to shoot!

Prop list

Prop list:

Smile device (a device used to pull back smiles so that people can keep them) this will probably be made from rubber bands and a soft, hook shapped devise.

The horrific smile device (similar in design to the smile device, but features more fish hooks and wire)

razor blades

fake blood

soup (Bland green colour. Not meant to look at all tasty)

 Medical/sergical masks (for the face changers)

Medicine bottles (to be used for the Smile-a-while medication)

Saussure's semiotics would review some of these items as holding meaning to an audience, razor blades for instance are linked to the icons of teen suicide, and the "smile"

Mood board