Following putting together all the shots we had filmed, we decided that some things needed to be re-filmed, as they didn't work in the way that we wanted them to. Firstly, we need to reshoot the shot where Chloe is walking to the graveyard, and she looks up at a Church ruin. Here we wanted a match on action, so that we see Chloe looking up, and then the next shot is of what she is looking at. However, when the filmed it, the footage went too fast, and therefore we need to re-film this, so it will work better.
Here is the shot before the archway shot, where Chloe is looking up at the arch, and then there is a match on action.
Here is the match on action shot that we need to re-shoot, as the shot was way too fast and didn't look how we wanted it to, as the shot was meant to be as though Chloe was looking up at the arch as she walked, before slowly looking back down.
The next scene that needs to be re shot is when Chloe is sat down with friends in college before the class starts. The only part that needs to be re filmed is when her friends leave, and then there is a shot that awkwardly breaks the fourth wall, which makes the scene look strange.
There are already a few things that we have already re shot. We decided to add some more footage to the burglary flashback scene, as at first, it was simply a scene of POV shots, which was confusing as what was happening, as the audience couldn't see whose point of view it was.
Here is the original POV shot, that we instead used in the first flashback, so that it provides mystery as to who is getting stabbed.
We then added this shot of Amy, who is the character who Chloe thinks died, to convey that she was possibly stabbed by the burglar.
In the next flashback, we added a shot, that wasn't a POV shot, to then finally reveal to the audience that in fact it was Chloe that was stabbed by the burglar.
Finally, we also added a scene where the audience is able to see Chloe stumbling outside and falling into a pool of her own blood. We did this in order to give the film a more sinister feel.
We also need to re-do the second voice over, where Chloe is writing in her diary about what has happened at college, and that she is going to visit Amy's grave. Alongside the voiceover, there is a shot of Chloe writing in the diary, which we need to cut down, as it is too long.
In order to attract a wider audience, we have used our social media platforms like Facebook, which can be used in order to try reach a bigger audience. We created a Facebook page, in order to share updates about our upcoming film, such as photos of the cast filming. We have also used the Facebook page to share questionnaires for potential audience members to fill in, to give us feedback about our film, in its current rough cut.
I have decided to create a few more poster designs, one that could be a teaser poster, as a teaser poster doesn't have a lot of information on it to provide intrigue to audience of what the film could be about, and another poster, which has more information provided to the audience and will also contain a billing block.
Firstly, here is a teaser poster idea.
Here, the teaser poster simply has the two main characters starring in the film, along with the title of the film and a tag line, which is 'Can you escape it?'. A tagline is used to provide the audience with questions about what the film could be about, in this case, wondering what it is someone is trying to escape from. Finally, the centre and only image of the poster is of a character, who appears to be injured, which would provide more questions for the potential audience and may encourage them to see the film to have these questions answered.
Secondly, here is a main film poster idea.
Here, more information is provided on the poster, as there is a billing block, which lists a variety of different information, such as who produced the film, who wrote the script, who edited and directed and who is starring in the film. There is also additional information, such as a website for the film and the production company logo. This poster differs from a teaser poster, as there is more for the potential audience to look at. Here the centre image is of a character in a mask, who is holding a knife, and then along the bottom of the poster, there is a secondary image, which appears more blurry, and another character can be seen in a graveyard, which allows the audience to be given a bit more information, such as, with the tag line again, and who is haunting these characters.
One prop in particular, that we found difficult to get was the gravestone with Chloe's name on. This was because we would have to get a gravestone carved out which would be extremely expensive to do. Considering that our film is an independent film, we have a very low budget and so we were unable to get this prop within our budget. This meant that we had to change the story line slightly, and instead of showing the gravestone to the audience via a close up, we would show Chloe (as a ghost) seeing the gravestone while a voice over of her diary entry plays in the background, explaining what has happened.
Another difficult prop we had was the blood on the knife. We were unable to get the fake blood on the knife as it may have stained. Also, when we did try, the blood would just run off and so it didn't look very effective. Instead, we had to put the fake blood on some tissue and put the tissue on the knife. This means that this shot may not look that realistic although we tried our best to angle the camera so the tissue would not be too visible.
For the music of our film, we decided that we needed something to create a much more suspenseful atmosphere for the film to be the thriller that we intend it to be. To do this, we researched into various stock music that may portray this atmosphere. We also researched into stock sound effects which we could put on top of the action which would also result in the same suspenseful effect. The links below are all music or sound affects that we have considered using or have used.
Initially we wanted to have our main characters name, Chloe, on a gravestone to clearly represent she was dead for the twist at the end. However, since buying a gravestone and carving a name in would be too expensive, we thought we may be able to shoot the back of a gravestone (where it would be blank) and edit the name onto it. We found this difficult to do and to make it look realistic as it was hard to match the texture so we had to change this part of our storyline. So now instead of having a visual representation to the audience, conveying that Chloe is the one actually dead, we have now got a voice over of a diary entry explaining it.
Another problem we encountered during editing was trying to find the best way to portray a flashback. We tried various transitions, such as a dissolve, and tried making the shot black and white, however none of these seemed to work for our film, and make it obvious to the audience that a flashback was occurring. We eventually found an effect that seemed to work, this effect was the echo effect which gave the shot some what of a distorted atmosphere while also creating some suspense. We also altered the colours slightly, to give it a more eerie atmosphere for the audience.
Sound was also a big problem while editing. This was because in the shots that we filmed in public places, such as the scene with Chloe and her friends, there is a lot of background noise. We overcame this by filming numerous shots for each shot and then replacing the sound from some shots with sound from one of the other shots (when it wouldn't be too obviously noticed).
We also had some difficulty when we were trying to edit our title together for the title sequence. This was because we wanted all the letters moving in different directions (towards the centre of the screen), while the shot zooms in (really close to the letters) so the shot could go through the 'hole' in the 'A' and go into the first scene. However, this was difficult to do as the title went blurry as we zoomed in, and the colour red (which is the colour of our title) wouldn't subtly dissolve into the shot. This meant that we had to scrap that idea and now we just have all the letters moving to the centre of the screen.
Another problem we encountered was having an effective scream. At the end of our title sequence, just before the title comes up, we wanted a good effective scream which it would then cut to the title. However, we tried using a scream we got when filming, however it didn't create the atmosphere we wanted. This meant that we had to get a stock scream to put over it. We found various stock screams and used different ones for the title sequence and the actual murder scene. This is because having the same one for both didn't suit both scenes. The stock scream in the scene where Chloe is murdered creates a suspenseful, and eerie atmosphere.
Here is our first rough cut of our filnm Haunted. We are sending out questionnaires and have put the video on Youtube (encouraging people to comment on improvements we could amke) to get a large variety of opinions. This will enable us to make improvements for our second rough cut, and finally to make our final film to the best standard of our ability.
There are a variety of different things that can be done to make video footage look like film, as this is a common goal for film makers, however, most film makers nowadays film on video, and therefore wish to achieve to achieve the look of film, despite not using film.
1. Frame Rate
From the beginning days of film, movies were shot and projected on 24 frames per second. In order to achieve the video looking like film, you should make sure that your camera is set to this mode, unless you need to shoot at a higher frame rate, in order to achieve slow motion, for example. If you do not shoot your film at 24 frames per second, the clear giveaway is the lack of motion blur. Video footage is very clinical and can look incredibly perfect at times. Older video recorders only shot around 30 frames per second and so, it created a realistic look, but didn't look cinematic. Real film exhibits motion blur when an object is moving through the screen, and in order to get the organic motion blur on your footage, you must be sure to get the right frame rate.
Example of a frame rate
Example of a motion blur in Star Wars
2. Camera movement
Camera movement is an incredibly important, and can be considered to be the most useful in achieving a film look. Camera movement can be anything, such as placing the camera on a tripod with no movement, or creating a POV shot by using a handheld camera. In order to make your film feel cinematic, it is important to give focus to the camera movement.
3. Framing
Framing is incredibly important in order to make your film look cinematic. Having good framing in a film will allow for it to tell the story through the framing alone. It is important to get the framing right otherwise it will ruin all the other techniques used above. An example of good framing is a shot from the King's Speech, where the shot allows to show the emptiness of the character is feeling, as they are positioned at the corner of the shot, creating an empty space.
Viral marketing is a method of marketing where it engages the audience and encourages them to share the ad with friends via the internet and other interaction. These tend to reach a widespread demographic as the audience gets excited and so wants to share it with others. This method is commonly used amongst big cinematic films, such as Batman, and they tend to be extremely successful when they reach enough people.
For example, Batman The Dark Knight Rises did viral marketing when releasing their film. They spray painted the iconic Batman symbol in various places around the world. Fans had to find these symbols, take pictures of them and post them in the hashtag on the social media site, Twitter, to unlock frames of the trailer. Once all the pictures were found, it unlocked the entire trailer. This method engaged fans, while creating excitement for them and creating a fun way to release the trailer. In fact, this was so successful that the twitter hashtag trended higher than The Avengers, a competing film.
Viral marketing has been largely helped by the exponential growth in advancement of internet and other technologies. For example, in recent years there has been a large amount proliferation amongst technological devices, such as phones and laptops. Now almost everyone has access to the internet which has enabled viral marketing techniques, such as Batman, to become so successful.
Viral marketing could be a huge benefit in the advertisement of our film as it is often free/low cost. The use of internet doesn't cost anything extra when advertising our film as we already have access to the internet, and so this could be an effective way of advertising an independent film like ours.
Since the main aspect of our film was having our main character write in a diary, we needed a diary for our film. We went out and bought a diary and then stuck a label on the front saying "Chloe's Diary" so we could clearly specify to the audience that the Diary is Chloe's and that the main character is Chloe. However, the audience would assume that Chloe has been writing in the diary prior to when the storyline of the film starts so we had to make it seem realistic. To do this, we wrote in numerous pages in the diary, writing fake events that may of happened to Chloe before our storyline began. It would most likely look suspicious to our audience if Chloe just started writing in a brand new diary just as abnormal events started taking place as it would be expected that she would have been writing in it prior to this.
We also had to make it seem realistic that Chloe and Amy were friends/cousins and had known each other prior to the strange events. To do this, we had our actors, Louise and Leah, take various photos together which we could use in our film to emphasise this to the audience.
As a group, we decided to research into credits, as our short film would require credits both at the beginning of the film, and at the end of the film. From looking into the history of credits, we found that traditionally, credits were only shown at the beginning of the film, and the use of closing credits, that now generally list all cast and crew in a film was not established until the 1970s, and so before this, closing credits were rarely used. Films before the 1970s simply used opening credits, which consisted of just major cast and crew.
There are two different types of credits that may be used in a film, and these are opening credits and closing credits. Opening credits may feature in a film or television show, and are shown at the beginning of the media product. The opening credits will list the most important cast and crew, such as main actors, and main crew, such as director and writer. They are likely to be shown in plain text, on a black background, or over the top of action of the show. Closing credits may feature in a film or a television show, and are featured at the end of the media product, and will feature a complete list of cast and crew. Closing credits are generally shown in plain text on a black screen, and sometimes may feature additional film material, such as a final scene or bloopers.
There are a variety of different things that will go into a credit sequence, whether this is for opening or closing credits:
Title card (opening)
The names of the main cast (opening) and the names of every cast member (closing)
The names of the producers and directors (opening) and the names of every crew member (closing)
Logos and names of the companies involved in the production of the film (can be both)
Copyright information (closing usually)
Soundtrack (opening and closing)
Here is an example for opening credits in the BBC television show, Sherlock (2010), which shows how the characteristics of what is included in credits are used.
Secondly, here is an example of opening credits from the film, Death and the Red Dress (2012), which takes inspiration from 1940s film noir, and therefore this is what opening credits may have looked like in feature films prior to 1970.
We decided that it would be beneficial to both the production and post production of making our credit sequence to research into what real media examples look like, and so here is our opening credits title sequence so far, to see how it compares to the real media examples above.
It was also beneficial to look at a real media product's credit sequences broken down, into opening and closing credits, and so for this, we looked at the Warner Bros. television show, Gilmore Girls (2000)
It was also useful to look at how big budget feature film or television show opening and closing credits may differ from small budget independent films, so therefore, we also looked for examples from real short films. One example is from the film, called Your Hands, which was a Kickstarter funded film, by the actress, Georgia King. The short film features both opening and closing credits, however they are different to the credits that are seen in big budget media products.
We also looked at another example of a short film, which features closing credits. In this closing credits sequence, it can be seen that there are only four characters and actors shown, as there may be less characters in a short film, especially if it is low budget and may require friends or family to help act in the film. Another feature of short, independent film credits is that one person may be shown to have multiple roles on the crew part of the credits, such as being both the director and the writer. This could be because not as many crew members will be involved in the creation of a short independent film.
However, we also found that despite a film being a short independent film, this doesn't mean that the credits may not be similar to those of a feature film. Even though they may be similar, there still is a major difference, which is that credits in a short film need to be short, as otherwise the credits may take up a huge amount of the short film, as for example, in feature length films, opening and closing credit sequences can be a number of minutes long. In the short film, The Crossing, which only runs for a total of 7 minutes, around one minute of the total time is for the ending credits.
This was also seen in another short film, called BOY. However this film is much longer than our short film, which only runs for five minutes, this film runs for 16 minutes, with a total of 2 minutes worth of credits. However, looking into this film gave us an insight for credits of short films. The music in these credits conveys the atmosphere created in the film and so we will most likely do this too.
During looking into what may be featured in a credit sequence, we also found that, in particular, opening and closing credits may feature a soundtrack as the credits roll. This is common on blockbuster films, which often add a song as their closing credits play, as this allows to keep the audience talking about the film, especially if they are exiting the cinema, during when the credits are playing. For example, in the blockbuster film, Transformers (2007), the closing credits run for a total of seven minutes, with songs being played through this, which can be used in order to keep the audience engaged. Marvel are also known for doing this, in which they tend to feature a short clip after a long closing credits sequence, which hints at what may happen in the next film.
From our research we found that credits for all films tend to be somewhat similar with just variations in length and the amount of people in them. Since our film is only a 5 minute film, it is likely our credits will only be around 30 seconds in length. For our closing credits, we therefore decided to keep them simple, by having cast and crew information displayed in white text on a black background. For our opening credits, we decided to include small clips that could provide a hint to the audience what the film may be about, along with the main cast names being displayed on top of the action.
Information presented in this post was taken from multiple individual posts, that we combined into one group post, to make the blog look cleaner. Below are the links to the Prezis from the individual posts:
Radio Trailers Research
Radio trailers contain certain features which allow them to be effective. The techniques that a radio trailer usually contains are; voice overs, key scenes from the film, music and facts about the movie which include when the film is set to release, age certificate, cast and director. These features together form to create a successful radio trailer, allowing for the potential of attracting of a wider demographic.
Voice Overs
A voice over in a radio trailer is vital in order to give the neccessary information to the audience. With the voice over details can be given about the film, for instance expressing the age rating of the film or the actors who stared in the film and the director, to create intrest amoungst listeners of the radio.
Music
Music is another key device in making a radio trailer, as it allows for the trailer to be correctly paced. It also engages the listner and music is typically a mian aspect of radio, making the music for the trailer all the more vital.
Vox Pops
Vox pops are a common theme in advertising a film and encourage people to see the film, as vox pops are groups of people who have been asked for there opinion on a product. In film this is common with audience members who have had early access to see the film and give their opinion on it, in a quick snappy manner.
Radio trailers enable a producer to advertise their film via the radio, allowing the film to reach a wider demographic. Radio trailers usually last around 25-30 seconds as to keep the audience intregued. A radio trailer generally contains;
Voice over.
Sound/speech from the film.
Slogan to the film.
Information at the end of the end of the film-release date, certificate, where to view.
Voice Over
Radio trailers depend on voice overs as they give the necessary information about the film, and without them, the trailer would be pointless and make no sense. They usually give information such as when the film will be released and where. It's generally the voice of a low-pitched male, this gives the film more dramatic tension.
Music
Music and sound effects from the featuring film are used to entice the targeted audience. It also engages the audience and urges them to listen to the voice over. The music used on a radio trailer gives an insight of what genre the film is going to be.
Lines from the Film
Lines lifted from the film feature in the radio trailer to give a basis of the storyline, it also encourages the audience to go out and see the film.
Following my research into finding out what viral marketing is, and examples of viral marketing from popular films, such as the Dark Knight, I have come up with an idea for a viral marketing advert for our film, Haunted. I have created an article, for a local newspaper, which reports that an unknown female body has been found in a house in Barnsley, which is the location of where Chloe lives. This can contribute to our storyline, as Chloe does not know that she is dead, and none of her friends know at college either, or ask where Chloe is, as it can be assumed she has been missing for a short while. Creating a newspaper article can create intrigue into what our film is about.
