Shooting Schedule

We planned our day of shooting to make sure everything ran along smoothly and to ensure we didn't miss out any important shots. Our schedule was also helpful as it reminded us of what we had to tell our actors.

 

The soundtrack

Soundtracks 

We have started to look at soundtracks to play over our opening sequence. We wanted a soundtrack that sounded scary and intense. We wanted it to start off slow and mysterious, while they're talking, to create an intense atmosphere. It should then start to quicken and become louder as Lucy & Annabelle notice they are being followed, and start to run away.  The soundtrack will then be layered with the noise of Lucy & Annabelle running. The beat of the soundtrack should match the pace at which they're running.  When Annabelle realises she has lost Lucy the music should quieten so the audience can hear Annabelle call Lucy's name and then hear Lucy's answering scream.

We have chosen a build up scare soundtrack to use for when the crazy woman picks up a rock and hits Lucy over the head with it.  We thought that this would create a tense atmosphere for the lead up to the murder. 

We tried to find a tense/scary audio clip to play over our title credits. We found 'Ambient horror music & dark soundscapes' on FinalCut Pro in the soundtracks folder. We thought this audio clip went really well our opening credits. We continued this audio clip throughout our opening sequence, layering it with other audio clips. 

We layered a memo clip, that we found online, over the top of the ambient horror music. We really liked the erie feel the audio clip had, we thought it made the atmosphere more suspenseful and hinted to the audience that something bad was going to happen. 

Update on Location!

When we decided where we were going to film, we decided on Warren Road, Bromley, England, United Kingdom. Although a few of our group had been to this location previously we didn't know exactly where we were going to film every different scene. We did several run throughs of the script with the actors and we decided in detail where each scene was going to be shot.

We are extremely pleased with our location, it really suits the movie being a thriller/horror. The location is secluded with few cars using the country lane surrounded by woods and spooky looking trees at night. It is perfect for the cliche 'silly girls walking home at night alone'. We feel that location is very important with how the audience connects with the sequence.

                                     

                                     

We also required a woody location for some of the sequence where the girls see then run away from the crazy lady. We were very lucky that this location also had a wood to the side of the road and a creepy looking lake so we were very happy with using this location.

If this were a big budget movie, shots like aerial and high angle would be easily obtained with cranes etc because of the large budget available. Our group felt that these angles would bring something eerie and spooky to the sequence and it would be a shame to not use them because of the fact we didn't have the resources like a crane. I had the idea of me climbing up a suitable tree and shooting from above, the woods at our location have many trees suitable for this.

As you can see the area in the woods where we film is very uneven ground, muddy after rain and generally quite hard to film on. We take this into consideration when planning filming days. Overall we are very happy with our location!

Costume ideas

We had an idea of what we wanted our characters to wear; making sure that we portrayed them in the right way (for example annabelle and lucy wearing dresses to show that they have come back from a party).

Annabelle - Dress and jacket

Lucy  - Dress

Crazy women (Alex) - ripped leggings and loose fitted white shirt

Filming Day 2 - 19th February 2013

On the second filming day, I feel that we were much more prepared having the previous filming days experience. We knew that we needed to be efficient and organised because of the limited amount of time with good lighting.

Our schedule for the day included filming all of the second scene which is the girls running into the woods and fleeing the crazy lady that appears to be following them, as well as some close ups of Alex/the crazy lady following them. The second scene is without doubt the longest scene and i feel we underestimated how long it was going to take to film it.

We didn't manage to get our whole schedule done that day but we got as large proportion of the 'fleeing scene' done and our group is happy arranging another filming day to get the close ups of Alex like we planned before.

We made a few small changes to the story board whilst filming on this day, such as the way the two girls run off has been changed to opposite directions and particular angles we wanted to shot from, after shooting them we found different angles that would portray the scene better than the original idea.

We love this still shot of Alex's character! We were able to shoot a
bit of the crazy lady on this filming day.

Overall we are very pleased with how the filming days went, we learnt that organisation and following the schedule is very important in order to keep to time slots and get filming done, and at the correct time, in order to achieve the best lighting in our shots.

Filming Day 1 - 18th February 2013

The first day of filming at the hayes common location was on the 18th February 2013 our group met in hayes high street and walked to our location. We had with us the equipment needed for filming which included three HD cameras and a tripod.

The first day of filming went well, it was a good experience for the whole group. We spent around two and a half hours at our location. We filmed around 25 minutes worth of good filming we should be able to use in our sequence.

During the first film day we started to realise some problems that we may face when filming in the future and how to over come these predicaments.

The main things that we faced were;

1) Lighting is a very complicated aspect of our filming project, we need the light during our sequence to  resemble the light of around 1AM but filming at this time is not really possible for actors and for our group, as well as the fact that it would be too dark. The sun currently goes down at around 6 o'clock in the evening and by the time it reaches 7 o'clock it is too dark for us to film without artificial looking light. This leaves us 30-60 minutes of good filming light.

Our actresses on location at 5.30pm

This is the lighting at our location at around 7pm

 As you can see in the pictures above the light at location varies a lot and changes very quickly.


2) The enviroment that we filmed in was a woody area off of a road in hayes near a lake which consisted of hilly and muddy areas which naturally is a bit tricky to film on but we manage to overcome this by using the tripod and imaginative ideas to keep the camera steady and film from some angles we didn't intend to but actually can bring more atmosphere into the sequence.

Whilst filming on the first day, our group realised how organised we needed to be and planning the scenes, shots and angles was very important in using time wisely and making sure all the shots are done as professionally as possible.

Specific Shot Planning

Although we are yet to confirm the exact shots we are going to be shooting, we have come up with some interesting ones that we are looking forward to shooting as we think these particular shots are quite strong and will bring some mystery, tension, shock, and proffessional quality to the opening sequence.

Below are some very basic drawings of possible scene shots and angles we think will look very good and we can hopefully film on 18/02/13

A) The thoughts behind this shot is a close up of the girls feet walking, I thimk this could be suitable as the opening shot as it gives an insight into what is happening in the scene.. i.e the girls are walking home, its dark and presumeably late because there are no other sounds but their footsteps which makes it rather eiery and spooky.

B) Close ups are always rather bold, a close up of eyes brings more of a tense atmosphere to the scene because eyes can show pain, happiness, evil, many emotions etc. A close up of the mad womans eyes could be a good shot to include as this will attract the viewers attention and look rather dramatic. Equally, a close up of the victims eyes which would show fear, could also be as moving for the audience as the mad woman's.

C&D) We have found a very good setting to film at and its very suitable for long shots. We discussed this type of shot together and we all think a frame were we show either the scared girls or the murderous woman in full with the scenery behind would bring the sequence alive a lot more.

E) This drawing just shows the filming location, we think that an establishing shot would be great and we can really show off the surroundings and how well they work with the film. We are also lucky to be filming when a cresent moon is about so we can get a very neat shot of the moon which could show the viewers that its night and generally moons are associated with creepy things happening.

F) At the moment we are thinking of leaving the sequence as an element of suprise and although making it clear that one of the girls has been murdered, not showing any gore although this could change if we think the sequence would be better showing the girl. A good shot to show what has happened could be the murder weapon covered in blood, it would be rather shocking to see and this would make the opening sequence of the movie draw the audience members in to carry on watching.

Day Before Filming

Our first day of filming is going to be tomorrow (Monday 18th February)

We are meeting at our filming location which is Hayes Common at 16.00, we have chosen this time because in order to get the scary atmosphere of the film we need the location to be dark, but at the same time we also need adequate lighting. This is one of the problems we believed we may encounter when we first planned the filming. 4 o'clock in the afternoon should be when the nightime settles and we are taking with us some big work force torches which admit large amounts of light and could be made to look like moonlight. We will do some practice shots with before to make sure that the light doesnt look artificial if we do need to use the torches.

We have two of Megans friends who are actresses playing the teenage girl characters, we have asked them to wear smart/casual as if they had come back from a party like the characters are. The other charcater is the 'mad woman' an escapee which is going to be played by Serena's friend. They are going to be wearing some ripped leggings and a white t-shirt, which will give a plain but mysterious look to the character.

As for props, there is a fancy dress shop called 'fancy dress me .com' in coney hall which we will purchase fake blood from.

We are yet to finalise the order in which we will shoot the shots and little details but other than that we are very excited to be starting our first day of filming!

Props

Fake blood - We have looked at a few recipes for fake blood, we have tested a few of these recipes to see which one looks the most realistic. And we have chosen the following recipe because it was easy enough to make and looked a lot like real blood.  The blood will be used when Lucy is murdered. We will make the fake blood on the day as it is quick to make and doesn't last long.

This mix can get quite sticky and may stain clothes but is easily removed from skin with baby wipes or warm water. It tastes sweet, and looks real—–especially in front of a still camera.

Ingredients: Water, Golden Syrup, Food colouring (red, blue and green), chocolate syrup or maple syrup. 

You make the fake blood by:

1.  Add the golden syrup to the water with the ration of 3:1

2. Add a few drops of red food colouring, until the colour resembles blood

3. Add a few drops of blue and green food colouring to achieve a darker shade or red, making the fake blood look more realistic

4. Add in either the chocolate syrup or the maple syrup, this acts as a thickening agent. Stir the mixture thoroughly to ensure it is smooth and has no lumps in.

Murder weapon - We have been looking at various murder weapons for when the crazy woman kills Lucy. We wanted a weapon that would make a person bleed out. We have looked at the following weaphons:

The weapons above would all be 'safe' to use as they will be made out of harmless material. Our favourite weapon is the broken bottle because we thought it was quite theatrical and is not commonly used as a murder weapon. We also liked the idea of using rope (even though it would not cause a person to bleed) because its quite an easy thing to buy, we thought it wuld look quite good if the crazy woman was walkign around dragging a lond strand of rope. Because we are filming in a public place we need to make sure that any wapon we use is not actually dangerous or cause any distress to any of the public.

Weather Report

We have checked the weather reports for the planned day of shooting to ensure that the conditions will be suitable for filming. This is because we want our shots to be a good quality to avoid having to re- shoot them.

 As you can see from the image below, The weather should be good enough for filming.

Location and cast

Location

We chose this location because we wanted to have an open space as well as a wooded area, this location is perfect for our film idea. The place we have chosen is also practical as we all live close to the location, therefore if we need to re-do any shots, it will not be a problem to go back and film.

Cast

Lauren Shanahan (Annabelle)
We chose Lauren as she can play the role  of a shy/ sensible person well, and she is also very reliable which is important whilst filming as we will take up quite a lot of our actors' time.

Katie Simpson (Lucy)
We wanted katie to play the role of Lucy  as she has a bold personality which is perfect for this character. Again, she is also reliable which is crucial for filming. 

Another reason for why we chose Lauren and Katie to play the main roles was that we liked the stereotype of two blonde girls playing the victims in a horror film.

Alex Cusack- Barbareau (Crazy women)
We chose Alex to play our crazy women as she  has a very bubbly personality and is very outgoing. When we asked her to play the role she was very interested in taking part and couldn't wait to show us her own interpretation of the character.

Production logo

To come up with our production company logo we looked at real production companies logos to get a sense of what they looked like and how we could animate it to look professional.

We decided that our production name was going to be called 'pulse productions' because we are creating the opening of a scary movie and we like the whole idea of our movies 'raising the pulse' of viewers.

After a few designs we narrowed it down to the two below and we all decided on logo b to be our final logo. We then set out to create the animation which will feature at the start of our opening sequence.

We found the font we wanted to use and the back ground graphics, however putting them together proved to be a little problematic.

This is an animated production logo, we have faced a few problems with animating it, like trying to get the font that we used transparent so it could be layered onto the animated 'beating' graphic.

We were using final cut pro and fireworks, after getting used to the software more we managed to sort it out out and perfect the moving logo how we all wanted it to be. We are all extremely pleased with final animated logo shown below.

Final production logo

The outcome looks very professional, like real production company logos and it is suitable for the theme of the film.