EVALUATION

For this project in media, our task was to research into different types of film and to then create a 2 minute opening sequence. We really enjoyed our task, all chipping in with different ideas, bouncing different ideas around. I thought we really did well and from looking at our final production- it shows just how hard we tried.

The best part I like about our film is the choice of locations. I really like how they all flow together and the church scenes work really well, with the gravestones and the eerie look it has about it. I like the choice of lighting, how the partial black and white shots are all previous events- which would then become fully clear to the audience if we had carried on with the full film. The actors we used, being friends of ours, all did really well- the zombies looked and acted really well. Jade, the main ‘druggie’ girl in the production, acted very well on camera, and because she is part of our media group, she was very reliable. From the view of editing, I think it flows nicely, not any obvious jumps or parts where it drags on a bit.

If we had to finish the film and carry on with the process of the production; show it in the cinemas and then later bring it out on DVD, we know it wouldn’t be a huge blockbuster hit, but I think it would do quite well. From our research, people were interested in our idea and from looking at their reactions to watching our 2 minute production; they all enjoyed it and thought it was very good, liking the make-up choice and acting.

Obviously, as we were the ones who created the film, we could see little parts where we could tweak and improve. We said that if we could edit it slightly, we may have the ‘druggie’ girl saying a few lines or screaming in parts, e.g. outside the church door, this may then look that bit more realistic. Another part was Doctor Greenwood (the girl asleep at the desk), to maybe introduce her a bit better; perhaps having her snoring- to make it clear to the audience that she was asleep. But as this is only the first 2 minutes, we agreed that if we had carried on, we would then link back to this and explain.

What I learnt from this whole experience was mainly the fact that even when making a school production-not yet knowing all the techniques & skills of a professional- the budget was still high! Thinking back, we did have to put quite a lot of money together to get all the products and other things we needed to film. We tried to stick to simple, cheap ideas, but making them effective. For example, the costume was just plain dark shirts, which we covered in mud, giving a brilliant, rotting effect! From creating a film of your own, it makes you think about just how much money it must cost to create a blockbuster film and how their budget must be in its millions!

Overall, we all really enjoyed this project, making sure that as a group, we all agreed on decisions made and each getting input. I would say we worked well as a team and stayed on task.

Link to our main production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7wo0D3tf_U

Music, Colour & Lighting...

MUSIC:
            We created our music using 'Garageband' a software on the mac computers. It was simple, easy way to make music- which is copyright free. We used the effects and music clips to help our production flow. We did the music during the end of the editing- that way we could see exactly what we were making the music for.

We knew that we wanted several things:

COLOUR & LIGHTING:

For this we agreed we had to have the following:
        1. A strong difference between the present day scenes and the past (in the office scenes- to the zombies and the girl running away)
        2) The lighting would have to keep the sense that the running from zombie sequence would happen all on one day even though we would have to film it over several days.
        3) We wanted to capture the colours that are shown through films of the horror genre so we could create that atmosphere. Also keeping that dark, errie tones that many of the films we looked into had.

We were inspired by a few of the films below...

  SIN CITY (2005): Sin city is a film that choses to use black and white. This time it tries to create the atmosphere of both the comic book it is based on which was in black and white and also it wants to relate to film noir.

GLADIATOR (2000): Gladiator inspired the idea of the interlink of time and it pulls this off really well because of the difference in colours between the present day and the future/ afterlife shot. They chose to use a green blurry tint that gave a coldness to the scenes which gave a form of mystery to the scenes. Unfortunatly although this worked for Gladiator where the shot was a reference to the afterlife ours is just a difference in time, so we would take that into consideration.

THE GOOD GERMAN (2006): Although this was recently filmed, it was indeed filmed in black and white. This is only so it relates to the time set in the 1940's- when colour was not yet on televisions. I like the idea of the black and white look- as it's quite edgy dull and dark.

We decided that the black and white effect inspired us to use in our film. It made us see that black and white captures a mysterious, sinister atmosphere. Also the black and white affect gives the sense that this film is set in a past time. We changed the colour of our preliminary to get an idea of how the colour change would affect the mood and atmosphere of the scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFQnrEgFcEY

It is surprising the affect that this slight change of colour has created to the scene and it instantly looks old.

When it comes to lighting for the film we will have to make sure that we film at the same time on each day that we film and that we make sure that it dosen't get too dark or too light. The majority of our shots are outside and thus it will be more difficult because you can control indoor lighting. We can though in the editing process add or take away from the brightness of the shots and this will come in useful to develope simular levels of light.

Storyboard..

ONE. This is an extreme closeup shot of Evalene opening her eyes.

TWO. This is a panning in shot starting as a wide angle shot, then going into a closeup which will focus on the sign of the door which will read "Dr C Greenwood - Pathologist".

THREE. This is a wide shot of Dr. Greenwood sleeping on her desk (telephone ringing in the background) 
FOUR. Midshot of Jade (Druggie) looking scared and running
FIVE. Wide shot of Jade entering the underpass
SIX. Overhead shot of Jade leaving underpass (shoot above underpass)

 SEVEN. Back on ground level, a wide shot of Jade running up a small hill away from camera
EIGHT. A Midshot of Jade's back and shoulders, turning her head round to the right hand side
NINE. An over the shoulder shot of Jade looking back at the underpass- zombies above underpass
TEN. Midshot of Jade turning her head round
ELEVEN. Wideshot of underpass- with no zombies
TWELVE. Dr. Greenwood still asleep on the desk (telephone ringing)

 THIRTEEN. Midshot of Dr Greenwood, swaying from side to side (waking up slightly)
FOURTEEN. Midshot of Jade's foot splashing in a puddle. Camera pans and follows her foot into a wide shot of her. This remains a low angled shot- level with foot.
FIFTEEN. Close up of Jade looking scared.
SIXTEEN. Wide shot of Jade running out of alley
SEVENTEEN. Wide shot of Jade running through gate (entering church grounds)
EIGHTEEN. Panning shot, over the shoulder (Jade) of the church.

 NINTEEN. Midshot of Dr. Greenwood waking up even more.
TWENTY. Wideshot of Jade banging on the church door.
TWENTY ONE. Side shot of Jade pounding on church door.
TWENTY TWO. Midshot of Jade looking scared.
TWENTY THREE. Wide shot of Jade, sliding down church door (back to door- facing camera)
TWENTY FOUR. Wide shot, Point of view shot (Jade's view) Zombie popping up from behind grave.

 TWENTY FIVE. Midshot of Jade looking very scared
TWENTY SIX. Another point of view shot, several zombies coming from behind graves and walking towards Jade.
TWENTY SEVEN. Wideshot of Jade, now in a huddle on the ground, sitting with her back to the church door.
TWENTY EIGHT. A wide/ point of view shot of the zombies (Evalene in the middle) A low angle perspective- as Jade is looking up at them around her.
TWENTY NINE. Close up of Jade's face- now extremely scared
THIRTY. Wide shot/ Point of view & Low angle of Evalene walking towards Jade.

THIRTY ONE. Jade looking up at the camera (High angle shot) Worried and almost in tears.
THIRTY TWO. We then go back to the original image of the extreme close up eyes opening. This then links back to the previous event- through repetition.
THIRTY THREE. Wide shot of Dr. Greenwood in her office, now awake and answered the phone (her dialogue now spoken)
THIRTY FOUR. Over the shoulder shot of Jodie (me), looking at Jade lying dead on the floor. (Dialogue again coming in and ending the scene)


These are what I have drawn and scanned onto my computer. These are rough sketches of our final production storyboard. I drew a coloured key of the actors involved, by putting a coloured dot in the bottom right hand corner of each picture. This helped us visualise the film and we could see what angles worked well and what we could add/remove. This storyboard helped us on the filming day as to remember the shots we needed etc.

Dialogue..

There is going to be little dialogue with only the brief phone conversation. The rest of the two minute opening sequence is going to be more of a montage and all simply punctuated by music and a few sound effects.

The phone conversation dialogue:

Dr C Greenwood: (answers phone) Yes what is it?

Pathologist on scene: We've got another one

 

Further Location development...

For our opening sequence we need several different places:

1) An office for Dr C Greenwood to be asleep in, which must have a desk, phone, a large office like chair and a door which we can put a sign on which will introduce the character of "Dr C Greenwood - Pathologist"

2) We need three or four locations which the druggie could run down and give the sense of a chase sequence- preferably quite eerie and dark.

3) Then we need the big climatic scene where a load of zombies appear. This in nearly all horror films is a graveyard, and thus we must search for a viable churchyard.

Running Locations

This could work but it looks a  little too residential and one of the crucial elements of our film is to create a horror like atmosphere where there is a sense of isolotion and at the same time a presence of humanity for later in the film where people are trying to be saved. This is not only too residential to suit the mood but trying to film the running scene in an area where cars are going to be present it is difficult to say the least because there are indeed constant interuptions that could also be potenially dangerous.

This again is a little residential and the road is again a problem, this road is even busier than the previous, it will therefore be disruptive, noisy and potenially dangerous.

A skatepark would be good especially in the sense that it is instantly recognisable as something that shows off humanity and yet the fact that it is empty makes it look desolute and this works very well to make it scary and horrifying- especially if filmed later in in the evening (darker). Unfortunatly the only time that the skatepark is empty is during school time and even then it can have the odd occupant we therefore would be lucky to manage to film all we need without being interupted.

This is a straight track that would work well to convey the length of the druggie character running. It is a place that has a large ammount of traffic when it comes to people and this would a problem because of interuptions. But this was the kind of location we wanted.

This is isolated area, with the gate creating the appeal of a horror film, unfortunatly the ground is grass and this could be a problem if it rained. As there is much running occuring in the film- running on wet grass is quite dangerous, and we did not want to chance the weather being dry on the day of filming!

This is again a street that is too residential and has too much traffic, this would cause too much interuption.

This is a remote/ isolated back road which would serve well if it weren't for the fact that we would be using a semi private road, that may require permission to film. This area has many young children living around. When filming a production involving zombies, we wanted to be careful that no children saw- as we did not want to frighten them!

This is a ramp that leads up to a block of flats and it has the same problems as the previous place.

This is a back alleyway but unfortunatley it is a busy root into town and although the lighting and setting is good it would be hard to use because of interuption.

This is the flats carpark area and this works well except for the fact that again it is also semi private and a grey area we therefore agreed against this location even though it has an eery feel to it.

This is a stairway that would look great in a shot of the druggie running round and down the steps, if it wasn't for the fact that this stairway is used so often it would be perfect.

This is an alleyway which is, we've decided, perfect for a running shot. It is extremely creepy in a  very isolated area of Old Windsor. It is isolated and it is overgrown in places. There is still though some signs which become signs of human life.

This is an underpass that we have also chosen to use. As you can see from the pavement on the road above we will be able to capture an over-the-head and high angle shot of the druggie running up the hill. Again, it is a rather busy area- but we said it may work to film as the road was closed the day we set to film.

This shows the possibility for an over-the-head shot.

This shows the underpass from ground level, this shows also the possibility that we could put a zombie above the underpass and the druggie could look back and using an over-the-shoulder shot we could see her view of it.

This shows the creepiness of under the underpass, plus the over side of the underpass. It is very dark- this being perfect for our film!




3. CHURCHYARD

We quickly came up with the St Peter and St Andrew Church in Old Windsor for our chosen church ground. We have decided to go for this church because it is remote and hardly any people living round the area. The church as one of several in Old Windsor is not often used. Also we had connection through Jodie's mother and this means we have got permission to use the graveyard and the church grounds. One of the major problems of using a churchyard is that you have to have a level of respect for your surroundings. We obviously would take great care when on the grounds. Making sure we respectful, quiet and well behaved would also mean that there is a high chance of the people who are in charge of the church, letting us use it again. While filming, we would make sure that anyone who happened to walk past- who did not already know we were filming- understood what was happening. We would make some signs and posters to put up around the church- so that people would understand and leave us to film.

The best part about this church is that is one of the most picturesque in Old Windsor and vary rarely used.

This is a view from the gate we wish to use and the church. It gives you a view of the main running part of the churchyard scene and I love the way that is a slight curve to it and so it will create a more interesting concept of the simple running length and this will be brilliant for a long shot of the figure running. From this image we instantly get the sense of a few health and safety problems. The stones that make up the pathway is going to be difficult and possibly dangerous for running on, we will therefore have to look at footwear and the speed that the drugged girl has to run down. Other health and safety issues that arise could be the chance of any branches falling from the trees.

This is the view of the second running section of the church graveyard where it is possible that the druggy will have to run further still. It gives an option to add in an extra running shot. The lighting is very dark here with the church and the tree create a great amount of shadow which is brilliant in a sense that it makes the shots atmospheric and yet problamatic because you might not be able to see the action. Again same problem with stones when running.

This shows a shot of the spire of the church and as you can see it is very creepy looking and with the right kind of lighting extremely creepy. This is something that gives a great shadowing affect to the whole place.

This shows a shot of the graves and type of trees that are posistioned as part of the main graveyard section. The gravestones are perfect with most of them being older than at least a hundred years, which gives it that gothic look that makes an appearance in nearly all horror films. The trees are dotted here and there and they give great shadows to the graveyard, unfortunatly this means that the lighting could be compensated. I like the idea of using shots through the gravestones to give the affect of there's things behind the gravestone looking out at the subject.

This is one of the gravestones that we were thinking one of the zombies could come round. Its big enough that someone could easily hide behind it.

Other examples include:

This is the door that we wish to be the place the druggie is to be found dead. We want the druggie to run up to the church seemingly searching for a place of salvation she therefore tries all the doors and finds that they are all locked. This door will be a main focus for the scene when all the zombies come in. We also wish to end the film at this location in this particular area.

This image shows you the majority of the church, its full form. This is the way the druggie is going to run into the scene. (Behind the camera was the gate she runs through)

Our Storyline & Development...

From our research of looking at thriller and horror films, we have come up with an idea that we liked:

Our initial idea was that there was a new pill that had been invented that claimed to "cure all disease", we then wanted to incorporate one of the most scariest creations of the horror genre, the zombie. This being our foundation for a story we then looked onto who our films hero would be:

In thriller films they usually start by concentrating on one strong character that will lead through to the rest of the film, this is certainly the case in thriller film's such as "The Third Man", "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest" which are by far some of the most famous. In all three films they have a strong hero, in all of these films it is a man, mainly because of the time of there making, we therefore wanted to go for a women. Having chosen to present a women as the main character we knew that we would be breaking down some of the stereotypical views with most films of the genre even at this time revolving around male leads.
Having a women be the main character, we had to build up a character that was strong minded and not afraid to speak out. Now we wanted the lead to have a high class occupation, so we considered either a police, detective, or a doctor. A doctor would know more about the science of the drug, then we jumped to the idea of her being a pathologist. The idea of a pathologist was very interesting because it gave us the idea that the hullicinations of the pills could cause people to commit suicide or have accidents. A pathologist would therefore be the first one to realise the danger of this pill being released to the general public.

We thus had our plot. A drug is about to be released into the general public, everyone will get given it. The pill does cure all disease but on the same day, at a certain point every month, people who have taken the drug have hullicinations of zombies leading most to kill themselves. The pathologist women we have created is therefore, through her job, the first to suspect the pill of causing such mental visions. She would investigate into the pill and manufacturers. It would turn out that they were desperate to get the pill released for the profit, they had gone about keeping the knowledge of the side effects secret through killing off people that become suspicious and bribing people. Our pathologist therefore fights off the drug corporation and ends up going on the run. Time begins to run out as the date of the general release draws ever nearer. Ultimatily she stops the corporation and destroys the factories that make the pills and she then awares the world to the pills problems.

We then decided to think of a name for our main character, which is very important as it will follow us throughout the film. Obviously the pathologist is going to be a Doctor. We all liked the surname Greenwood, Dr. Greenwood had a bit of a ring to it. We then wanted a female name that would be able to be shortened to a masculine name which would help the comparison of the usual male name after playing around we got the name: Charlotte, which could be shortened to Charlie. Altogether then the name for our female pathologist, who is the hero of the film is : DR Charlotte Greenwood. The name sounded rather good put together!

Having chosen to have a lead female character we actually were surprised by how few thriller films had female leads that were seen as strong characters, especially when it came to our choice of genre. We therefore did a brief bit of research looking at a couple of examples of women in thriller or horror films:



WOMEN IN THRILLER/ HORROR FILMS

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)

In "The Silence of the Lambs" Jodie Foster plays a young CIA agent who is investicating a case that involves her working with a serial killer that has been locked up. She is not the main lead though instead she is seen as someone playing with Anthony Hopkins character. Jodie Foster's character, Clarice Starling is shown as not very strong as she is pitted against many stonger male characters. This is the original film and it combines the thriller and horror genre.

    

HANNIBAL (2001)

This is fourth in the series of films that branched out of the original "The Silence of the Lambs". It stars Demi Moore as the lead. She is slightly more independent and less stereotypical 'damsel in distress' type. This is more the character type that we wish to go with. Yet still Demi Moore's character as an FBI agent who again needs the help of a cleverer male figure.

ALIEN/ ALIENS/ ALIEN 3/ ALIEN RESURRECTION (1979-1997)

Sigourney Weaver plays the same character Ellen Ripley through the whole of the Alien films. In the films she is seen as almost masculine in concept with her orignal idea of making the character of Ripley as a man. It is therefore very striking how strong a character she is. In nearly all of the films she is the last character alive. This is the sort of character we wish to include in our film. This character inspires our film!

When it comes to our films opening sequence, that we actually have to film, we had to decide a few things. From our research we discovered that there is a divide between films of our genre, half start at the beginning and instantly start the story explaining things instantly, other films of our genre start with an action packed scene that leads onto the film, they don't have to make complete sense at that moment for they are explained later.

We decided that the second option of the two was exhibited in more modern day films eg. "Zombieland (2009)", "Ironman (2008)", "Inception (2010", "The Dark Knight (2008)", "Gladiator (2000)", "The Matrix (1999)".

We therefore want to show the hallucination of someone, the movies starting point will be a month before the general release of the pills therefore the figure taking the pill would have to come by them illegally. We therefore want to show a 'druggie' who is experiencing the affect of the drugs. We also wish to show and introduce the character of Dr Charlotte Greenwood. We therefore had an idea that is inspired in the majority by the films, "Ironman (2008)" and "Gladiator (2000)" both of  which start with a jump forward in time, then the film twists back to normal time. This contrast of time got us thinking. We would have the druggie running away from her hullicinations of zombies this would happen a day before the start of the events of the film. Then we would interlink it with the office of Dr G where she is asleep and the phone is ringing. At the end of the open sequence Dr G will pick up the phone and having answered we then see that the druggie is dead and a pathologist at the scene is the one on the phone to Dr Greenwood.

Collage of Pictures...

I created a little collage of pictures we took during the process of filming and during the course of our project. Here you can see the actors, the location etc. We all enjoyed this project, even though working as a team can be very hard, we managed to pull together to create a good film that we have put alot of effort into.