Stunt Research

We practiced the kidnapping with a professional stuntman to demonstrate the correct way to handle a person when imitating a struggle scene. We were then able to recreate what was taught with our actual actor in a safe and controlled way. We also filmed the situation in order to watch it back and pick up techniques again. 

We looked at front fall tutorials because during the scenes where Emily is running through the woods, we wanted to have Emily trip slightly, and just in case she was to fall completely over, we wanted her to be careful in the position she lands to restrict causing injury.

Health and Safety

When creating our trailer, we had to carefully consider the health and safety requirements throughout to ensure that our production was risk-free.

When our main actress was being filmed for the running scenes, we make sure she was wearing sturdy shoes, appropriate clothing, not running for too long, and had enough water to keep hydrated.

Temperature controls: appropriate clothing; coats, boots, jumpers. We were prepared for rain with umbrellas and waterproof clothing, and sunshine with sunglasses and sun cream.

          

The transport methods used included being either driven or walking, and reasonably short journeys avoiding main roads, seat belts worn, and at a reasonable speed to enhance the safety and comfort of everybody involved.

When she was 'shut' in the boot, we never fully closed it to avoid her becoming stuck inside. This reduced any risk of an accident and making the actress uncomfortable.

First aid equipment ready if necessary in the boot of the car belonging to Ellie. This meant that if we encountered any incidents in which we required help immediately then we had the necessary facilities to administer basic first aid.

No one was left alone in the woods, there was always at least two people together so that if anything happened and their was an emergency, no one was alone. By making sure that every group member and actors had a fully charged mobile phone and everyone else's phone number then if necessary we could contact  the others as quickly as possible.

When filming the motorway shot we stood on a bridge, two steps back from the edge and held the camera close to the body to avoid falling and dropping the phone.

Kidnap scenes were described to each actor, then rehearsed and practiced to make sure that neither were hurt and there was no risk of being dropped or harmed. Stunt work was researched and we used techniques to learn how to effectively recreate an abduction.

When the car was being filmed we ensured that all other people involved and not in the scene were far away and not in the area in which the car was moving to avoid accidents. Everyone involved within the scenes with the car were inside and so there was no risk of not being seen by the driver. While the driver was fully insured and permitted to drive the car, so that if something happened to the car, it could be sorted quite easily and tidily.

Apps Used

                                                  

 

Here is a mobile screenshot taken from an iPhone which demonstrates the apps that were used during the creation of our products. The blogger app was very useful as whenever a computer was not accessible, we were able to use our mobile phones to upload posts, it was also useful when uploading images as it saved us having to email each other the images then upload via a computer.

 

 

The social networking apps were also very helpful as we were able to tweet or upload images to our Instagram account whilst filming and editing in order to comment on the progress being made with the products.

 

Below is also a screenshot of the apps used on an iPad during the development of our products. Prezi was a very useful tool when creating interactive and creative presentations during our project.

 

 

 

Credit Transition and How We Made It

Myself and Ellie created this transition by using the software Microsoft Powerpoint. We created two text boxes, the first one including 'F          E             A            R' and then the other one including 'ORGET   VERYTHING   ND  UN'. We created an animation to combine to two together and have the writing dissolve away and after that have the F E A R  to increase in size to emphasize the key theme of FEAR represented in our trailer. We then set specific start times and duration of the text boxes an animation affects to run automatically. We then used quicktime to create a screen recording to video the animation. We first tried to export the powerpoint as a .MOV file, but this continued to cause error when we imported it onto iMovie. However, using quicktime and a screen recording was very straight forward and easy to use. 

Music Inspiration - Ian Brown F. E. A. R.

Ian Brown - Fear 

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Find everybody and rule
For everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason
Forgive everybody and remember

For each a road
For everyman a religion
Face everybody and rule
For everything and rumble
Forget everything and remember
For everything a reason

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)

Final eternity arouses reactions
Freeing excellence affects reality
Fallen empires are ruling
Find earth and reef

Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Final execution and resurrection
Free expression as revolution
Finding everything and realizing

You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)

(Fantastic expectations
Amazing revelations
Finding everything and realizing
For everything a reason)

F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
F.E.A.R. (You got the fear)
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear
You got the fear


Our TagLine is "Forget Everything And Run", inspired by the lyrics from this song where FEAR is the main focus. Ian Brown cleverly uses the letters in 'fear' as acronyms for each line of the song and we wanted to use this effect as it emphasises our genre, leaving the trailer in suspense and drawing the audience in further. The word play not only highlights the key emotions portrayed in the film but is also a reflection on the film, as the intelligent title foreshadows an intelligent narrative.

Tagline Planning

We brainstormed key words to do with Thrillers, our trailer and relevant emotions.

There were many ideas and possibilities we explored and eventually we settled on:

'Forget Everything And Run'

This is because the main aspect of our trailer is the concept of fear and escape, and this tag line emphasises both of these with one sentence and the initials spell out FEAR.

Below is a link to another blog post about a song created by Ian Brown - F.E.A.R., we used this music video/song as inspiration due to the consistent theme of fear throughout our film trailer and as we wanted to relate this and reflect it in our tagline. The song lyrics have been cleverly created to use the first letters of the words to spell out FEAR, this is an idea that we liked very much.  - http://apolloproduction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/music-inspiration.html

Also below is a link to a blog post to how we created are animated credit including the tagline to emphasise that the tagline spells out FEAR using the first letter of each word. 

http://apolloproduction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/credit-transition.html

Actor Profiles

FEMALE ACTRESS

Name: Emily Wardrop

Date of Birth: 05/12/1995

Nationality: British

Height: 5 ft 3

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Light Brown

 

 

MALE ACTOR

 

Name: Gareth Austin

Date of Birth: 18/03/1996

Nationality: British

Height: 6 ft

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Dark Brown

Potential Poster Images

We particularly like these two scenes of the film trailer as they capture the tension and suspense the most. We like the image of the male closing the boot as it captures the narrative of the girl being kidnapped and we also like how its from the victims point of view which would work particularly well as a poster as it is to entice the audience into watching the film. The film trailer also holds many scenes from the victims point of view.

However, we also like the image of the victim hiding behind the tree which also captures the tension well. We feel this image would work well as a poster it provides a basic idea of the narrative in which she is being followed, stalked and has escaped. However, we feel that we would like to adapt this image by making it into a long shot instead of a medium shot and add the male kidnapper in the background to make it clearer that he is trying to capture her. We are planning to capture this image on Sunday 9th March 2014, whilst re-filming a few scenes to add to the film trailer. I will post the image taken from this date and compare it with the image of the male shutting the boot. I will also take another image of the male shutting to boot to get a clearer quality as the one used in this post is a screenshot from the trailer.

Storyboard Version 2

Font Planning to Use for Credits

I have chosen to get the font styles from dafont.com in which I narrowed down the fonts by selecting the horror filter then looked to find which style suited our film trailer the best.

In the image to the left I liked the font 'OCTOBER CROW', however when later researching I came across the 'I STILL KNOW' font which I think works better with our film trailer. I like this font because it represents the thriller genre whilst not being to 'gory' which would suggest that the film trailer is a horror. However as we do not have aspects of blood and slasher. I like the patchy-ness in the writing as it can represent as if it has been scratched which would link together with the female character trying to escape. 

Film Trailer Credits

In our film trailer we have decided to have these credits incorporated into it. We created these credits on powerpoint which were then imported into iMovie as photos but we applied a transition to them to make them zoom in slowly to create an eerie atmosphere, the photos are in the order of which they are on the film trailer. We decided to have a black background with white font as it looks more contrasting whilst representing the type of genre the film trailer is. When creating the final credit image, some of the words were enhanced by making them larger than others to make them stand out more to the audience. We added '#THERUNAROUND' as it allows the target audience to view information about it on twitter and follow any updates if the film was to get produced.

Finding Film Trailer Sounds on YouTubbe

As we decided to use sounds from YouTube, we had to ensure they were Copyright free. The images below show the steps we followed in order to find the audio files.

In order to get the YouTube files able to be imported to iMovie to be edited to the film trailer, I had to convert the files to an MP3 first and then into iTunes on the iMacs which can then be accessed from iMovie. 

I also researched sounds on Royalty Free Music but there were some issues with this website. The first issue was that in order to access the sounds legally, we would have to create an account which required payment, and as we are a low budget production company we could not afford this. The other issue was that we did not particularly find sounds that we liked and though that could relate to our film trailer themes. 

We also got the background sound to our film trailer from the iMovie software itself as it provides basic sound effects. However we edited the sound on garage band to make it sound darker and more eerie. 

The chosen sounds that we decided to use in our film trailer are linked through SOUNDCLOUD on the another post. (Click here for link to post)

Film Trailer Sounds - SOUNDCLOUD Full Audio Files

The sounds in our film trailer are diegetic and non-diegetic, the non-diegetic sounds are shown on this post through SOUNDCLOUD, however the diegetic sounds included in the film trailer consist of Emily screaming at the beginning and then heavy breathing at the end whilst banging in the boot trying to escape.

I created a SOUNDCLOUD account in which to upload the sounds from YouTube and to publish them onto our blog. The sounds shown have been edited and cut and allocate to specific shots in our film trailer. For example, the SUSPENSE SOUND EFFECTS audio file has been cut into specific parts, the 2nd shot of The Apollo Productions text, the combined 'bang' has been used from this audio file.

I found these audio files from YouTube, we made sure that these were copyright free by using the Creative Commons filter on YouTube.

Below is the link to the post about how we found our sounds and ensured they were copyright free. (Click here for the link to the post)

Storyboard Version 1

Character Name Planning

These three names were the agreed names of which we would name the female victim character in our film trailer. The images show the basic meanings behind each name which we can use when deciding on which name to have for the female character. I am also going to create a questionnaire with the three names and hand them out to females aged 15-17, the questionnaire will have a basic narrative plot and then the three names, in which the testers can circle which name they think works best with our narrative and their reasoning.

Below is a link to the blog post with the questionnaire results:

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Conference Analysis

On Thursday 23rd January we travelled to the BFI to participate in a 'We Media' and Democracy lecture day. It was hosted by Matthew Hall, Head of Film and Media Studies at Seven Kings High School and author of the BFI's 'Teaching Men and Film'. We were also able to contribute to interviews with Rosa Weber and Malcolm Smith.

A brief outline of the day was listed on the BFI website as:

"‘We-Media’ and democracy in the pre-digital and on-line age. What is ‘We-Media’? How does it differ from more traditional forms? Can digital media promote social democracy? This Study Day is particularly relevant to those studying OCR’s AS Media ‘Audiences and Institutions’ unit and A2 ‘We-Media’ and ‘Media in the On-Line Age’. Students will be able to hear and put questions to a range of speakers representing different perspectives on the debates surrounding ‘We-Media’."

We discussed our opinions on topics such as;

-Should social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter be classified as 'media'?

-Does 'social media' depend on the internet and digital technology?

-Can YouTube be classified as 'media'?

WeMedia was the key focus of the day, and we were exploring its meaning and purpose. The key points we took from the day included that We Media is created by a community who happily share their opinions for fun, often poor quality, consumed only by friends and posted on YouTube, Flikr and other social networking sites. It includes texts that have creative value, produced by people with creative talent but who aren't employed as a media professional, therefore lacking professional training.

Civic Value are media texts created in order to give a voice to the participants and to spread information with the overall aim of helping society, e.g. Citizen Journalism. 

Some of the case studies we looked into included Demotix, a site where citizen journalists can post pictures of their own accounts of current issues/topics, creating discussions and raising awareness. 

-Institution independent

-Open source, anyone can contribute

-Communal value, sharing with other photojournalists

-Creative value, talented news photographers, but with no formal training or direct institution employment 

-Civic value, spread information worldwide, raise awareness, allows witnessing of events maybe not accessible by professional journalists (restrictions, planning, etc), provides training and practice for amateur photographers, non-hierarchial structure

-Cross media synergy, symbiotic relationship with media institutions offering quality photojournalism

Pre-internet subcultures were a topic we discussed and we compared their development with the progress of modern subcultures with the assistance of the internet. These subcultures included Punk, HipHop, Skater culture, Trekkies/Trekkers and Ravers. 

Key Quotes/Comments taken from the day:

- Mass production for mass consumption

-We think therefore we are

-In the past, 'you are what you owned', now in present times, 'you are what you share'

-One Pound Fish original videp generated 12.6m YouTube views, is that 'We-Media'?

-TAZ (temporary autonomous zones), free spaces where normal mainstream rules don't apply, you're not    judged as you're surrounded by similar people, forming own community 

Initial Film Title Ideas

Film Schedule

Filming Complications

1) Filming portrait rather than landscape on the iPhone

2) Not actually filming specific scenes then realising once uploading footage, or didn't film for long enough

3) Complication when uploading footage onto the macs - have to upload onto windows then onto memory stick then onto mac

4) Weather - was sunny when we wanted it to be dull and raining

5) Some footage didn't focus when filming on the iPhone

6) Location difficulties - too busy to film, raining when filming outdoors, sun too bright when facing ideal location to film

7) Sound not picked up at a high enough quality - voice overs need to be recorded

8) Difficulty keeping phone steady

9) Trying to organise all of group and actress to be on location for each filming day

Night Vision Effect

In our film trailer we have planned to incorporate a scene where the female victim will be in a dark room panicking/in distress. We would like to use the night vision effect on this specific scene to distort the footage to create suspense and confusion for the audience. 

 Having researched previous kidnapping based narrative film trailers, we would like to incorporate a night vision effect scene in ours. We like the effect as it creates suspense and also helps create and eerie atmosphere. I came across a tutorial on YouTube on how  to create this type of effect on iMovie, however we would like to experiment with the colours instead of 'going green' perhaps try blue like the one shown in the print screen in the left.
Having a blue effect connotes that the victim is isolated whereas having a red effect on the kidnapper could connote that he is the 'baddie' as well as suggesting danger. We will experiment with both colours to see which is best.