Movie and Production names

This lesson we decided as a group what would be our film name and the name of the production company. We had thought of a few names previously but decided against them, finally today we settled on 'State Of Emergency' as our film name and 'Dead Cell' as our Production Company name.
I think that both of these fit well with our film and hopefully what it will be about.

Starting to create video storyboard

Started to work on a more detailed storyboard by drawing using Paint Tool Sai and my Bamboo Tablet, then I will put it all together on Windows Movie Maker since that is the programme I have at home to make a video. This will show what we plan to film, and will work as a guideline for us when we get down to filming.

Story Board

I designed the storyboard for the film using the plan/timeline that we created last lesson, these are just rough drawings but hopefully this is what it will look like somewhat.

Hopefully from this I can create a storyboard video to upload.

Recce shots

Went out this morning and took some more possible location shots, although I don't think they will be as good as the previous one because the wooded area isn't as big, and since what we had in mind had a lot of walking it wouldn't be that suitable. It could come in handy if we needed somewhere extra though, as it isn't far to get to.

Plan/Timeline for filming

Since we had decided as a group, from both our own ideas and from that of the feedback to do a zombie film, we dicided to make a plan for how we would start the opening. Since a lot of zombie films begin the outbreak through the spread of a ficticious virus, we were thinking along the same lines. The main sections of filming will be done as if the main character is shooting a video diary, where he will be explaining into the camera that he had invented a cure for the virus that had spread but it had not worked, and he would hope that someone would find the video diary if he was killed. These sections will be a mixture of handheld filming and shooting the character filming himself from afar. The other sections of the opening will be 'flashbacks' thats will cut in every so often and give further explanation to the events that led to the zombie outbreak (during these we can also name directors, actors and other people included in the movie). At the end a title frame will appear with the words "6 months later" leaving what would be the rest of the film to continue.
I think by doing it this way we can get a range of different camera shots and there will be a huge variation of lighting and angles, since there will be many completely different scenes mixed in.

Location research

James went out at the weekend to search for possible locations as to where we could film our film opening as I suggested we could use a forrest-like area. This place is close by, so we could get there easily and fits the desired setting.

This week I will also go out and look for places to film in other locations so we have a wide choice.

By going out and taking recce shots we can see the advatages and disadvantages of all the possible locations and find out which one will be best for us. This place is good because we were thinking somewhere that would have lots of trees/foliage so that the lighting would look interesting, there would be both shadows and natural light. The trees can also conceal other actors until they are needed.

Distributers and other information.

Distributed by: Screen Gems 

Distributed by: Millenium Films

Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Information on three popular zombie films which could help us when considering our own film.

This includes the distributers, budget and box office results.

Images from the presentation.

Whilst presenting our idea breif, we took photo's to use as evidence. Here are the images of us telling the group our ideas from which we received feedback.
The powerpoint was englarded onto the board for everyone to see, whilst me and James expanded on the initial ideas we had.

Feedback from powerpoint presentation breif

This afternoon we presented our ideas for our film opening to the class, we told them our main idea, which would be to create a horror/zombie film. The feedback we got agreed with our own ideas that we had about the advantages and disadvantages, this is what was concluded:

Advantages

• A wide range of storylines, allows us to be creative,
• You can use a wide variety of locations to shoot the opening
• The film would be open for a wide audience

Disadvantages

• Makeup: Characters would need to look like zombies, it would have to be realistic and it would be difficult keeping the makeup looking consistant throughout the filming.

This is what we had already discussed prior to the presentation so it backed up our initial ideas. The group thought that the locations around peterborough would be useful for the type of film we wanted to do (e.g, lots of small woodland areas, rural areas, buildings - all these acceptable for a horror film) since the genre has a wide use of locations.
The group generally agreed with our idea, saying that they were interested in horror movies which seems to be a popular movie choice.
Although there was a worry about makeup, I am positive that this will not be a major problem and makeup allows us to be creative and overall not much is needed.
From the feedback we have settled on the plotline that a virus has spread, causing the victims to become zombies, and the main character will be the one with the cure. We shall use a mixture of handheld filming, where the character will appear to be creating a video diary of the events (this can show POV shots and a range of establishing shots and close ups of the character) and we can also film the character filming himself/the zombies as they chase him.

Overall the conclusion was that the rest of the class agreed with out idea, and the feedback was positive, which is good for us as we do not have to rethink our idea or change the storyline.

We are creating a powerpoint that we will eventually present to the class breifing our idea for our film opening, from this we will receive feedback from other people and be able to receive other responses to the film other than our own. From this we can incorperate other peoples views and ideas into the film opening as we create it and this will hopefully help us with the final outcome.

Timeline for film opening to 'Edward Scissorhands'

From the clip that I had posted in the previous blog entry, I have created a timeline to the film opening 'Edward Scissorhands', it details the main people of importance that appear in the opening titles. By analysing other film openings it will alow us to plan the timing of how certain events and titles appear in our own film opening.