Location, Location, Location... scouting

For a tenth session, it really wasn't a session, heck we weren't in the classroom. Instead, we were given permission to go location scouting! Regardless of how far away we live! We trekked to the specific locations we found on Google maps to observe and learn how much an effort it'll take to work on there. The fields were fantastic, perfect for the night-vision POV shot of the slender man himself, along with long walkways and paths where we took a lot of photos of. Sam also introduced the pub which surprisingly, wasn't so far from the fields and rural areas we were planning to film on. For one thing, i'm glad i wore my walking shoes today, for we continued down some roads and past town into a forest with the perfect dense environment which we'll take advantage of later when we start filming. Matt and Sam took plenty of photos, specifically one which included a reflection in the water which we all particularly liked. Theres also one sample film of a tracking shot moving through the wooded plains Matt took, which he will hopefully upload later on along with the photos. For one thing, i'm glad we got this sorted out today because now we got the location and area sorted and out of the way. A friend of Sam has agreed to play the part of the stupid character, whilst Alice is playing the main girl who gets chased primarily through the film. She's totally up for it, even mentioning about how she can run a few laps around the area just to get the high breathing action going for just a few seconds of footage. We're thinking of cutting the boyfriend character out for we were unable to find an actor to play him, and we've also discussed equipment that we needed to bring. Matt has bought online a tripod specific for the iPhone and a wide angle lens, which will both come in VERY handy, just so we can film it without the lens moving so much and in capturing more within the scene. Alice is going to bring her families large torch, with other lighting equipment and such just we can see in the dark whilst filming.

Filming Scheduled to start the Monday after the next,
             3rd December to 10th December 2012

Piano Keys are the Key +New Art

This afternoon whilst at home, i conducted a piano key test using the application 'Garageband', afterwards recording my voice and editing it all into this sound test video which you should see below.
A screenshot shows how the app presents its piano keys, and how i can use the keyboard as the actual piano.

The artwork displayed is of my own work. Our group is thinking that sticking to classic instruments and beats, we can create a very tensive atmosphere within our trailer. What do you think? Feel free to comment.

'Painting on the blank canvas'... Session 9

Todays lesson is all about the storyboards. The entire group was here today so we managed to get plenty of work done unlike last week which went a little slow. Alice and Matt discussed camera angles and how our strategy of guerilla filmmaking will take hold. The script, is not going along quite as great as we planned, however were hoping to draw inspiration from the story boards which is progressing nicely. Sam managed to find new locations and areas to possibly film in, with motorways (A3+ Park lane), extensive fields, and narrow woodland areas (Public Bridleway). We're confident on our locations now, and the synopsis of our plot is gradually enhancing. Story boards will definitely be uploaded soon, along with character profiles and details of the plot later updated.
Matt mentioned plenty of useful facts and information today, informing the group as this special lens we can get for the iphone, and how we can specialize in using for our film. We also discussed travel to our film locations, and also the fact that lighting is of vital importance in our trailer. Alice informs that she has a large torch at her house which she can possibly bring and use, whilst a smaller one too for the characters to use in the trailer maybe. Matt also started the health and safety sheet which we needed to fill out before filming, just so we can notify that our production stage is fully revised and set up without hesitations or problems coming up later in the project. Were still having problems finding actors, but i think it has come up to the conclusion that Alice is playing the main female role. We just need two more actors, male and reliable that we can trust to come back for at least a second day of filming. We're deciding on the role of the stupid character, and that this character is of vital importance for theres going to be a thrilling scene involving him getting grabbed.

Possible Film Name: 'INFERUS'
    Latin for 'faceless', it makes a good movie title because  of not only it points out the antagonist himself, but how much of a mystery he is, and unknown. It connotes infection, inferiority and fear. Its not exactly straight away our main title, but it is highly likely that it wont be changed.
                                                                                                   "Repeat, this is not a movie..."

Were looking forward to the editing process, for thats when we can get creative, and decide which clips and cuts are well suited for the trailer. The music will be mostly in Alice's, the editing in Matts, and the photoshop developments in Sam's.

The huit hour

Todays lesson was a bit slow and general today unlike our previous lessons. Alice is back now, however Matt was unable to attend so its just a repeat of every week now, with only two people in the group. It was slow today because because most of the work that had to done had to be written by hand, otherwise drawn. As usual, Alice the perfectionist, felt that the characters appearance had to be just right, and that their details had to be well suited and done for the plot of our trailer. We didn't really get much done for a story boards because the process of character creation took quite a long while.
(Alice) "Just a quick comment for this lesson, i cannot help but worry that we'll never find the right actors to play the roles of our characters. We need people that are reliable, and are able to get the work done, and lets face it, actually act instead of straight away laugh about it later. Im considering that if all hope is lost, ill probably step up to play the main female role, and leave all the trust of the camera to Matt, since Sam is playing the villain. This has been considered one of the most stressful weeks for me, and that i wanted to make sure that everything was just right and ordered, most of all done and out the way. It'll get better after the filming, for the editing is the fun part of the movie production"

Today we moved onto the filming process of our project. We looked at the locations we would film from and took screenshots and uploaded them onto the blog. We also started to design and get a feel for the characters we would have in our film. We did this by drawing them out and writing about their background and what they are like as a person. Also today we started looking into the script and getting a feel for the locations we would use and for what type of narrative the film would take and be like.