Improvements we had to consider from our second draft:
- Add production roles
- Add production company name and logo
- add colour correction
- film and add in a clip from Yoli's scene
When developing my second draft to this, I encountered a couple of setbacks. Firstly, my group and I had yet to choose a font suitable to our genre. In a post previous to this, you can see test footage experimenting with fonts and animations of text available on Final Cut Pro. We settled on a 'continuous' animation, and the fonts 'Handwriting - Dakota' and 'Adobe Gothic Std'.
Our more complex problem was adding our logo and production company name. We were placing these two things on a black background, and both use elements of black themselves, if they're not entirely black. Neither had outlines, and as both are images (.jpeg), their lack of animation didn't fit with our motion picture. Initially, my idea was to find an animation of white paint splattering, as this would contrast with the black. However, after discussing the idea with my group and teacher, we decided to drop the logo from our opening sequence and decide on a different font for our production company name (within Final Cut Pro), so that we could animate the text. We found a red and white paint splatter, which may represent innocence (white), being corrupted by danger (red), thus conforming with our theme and genre.
We filmed Luke's clip and added in his voice over, which we all think adds extra atmosphere and creepiness to our piece. I added audio effects to distort his voice - I made it sound deeper and added an echo - creating a feeling of abnormality, hopefully putting the audience on edge.
I have still yet to colour correct. After talking to Yoli, we've also agreed to add in a sound effect that sounds like a bang, in order to 'scare' character Charlie into dropping her phone.
I made shots in my scene much shorter, and created a jolting effect for clips that were too long but had aspects I wanted to keep in them (by cutting out the middle and keeping either end of the clip). Though I kept one of the shots with 'Hide & Seek' written on the board, this was more for reference in the future in case we want to find a similar typography or look. I added music and cleaned up my other crew members' scenes.
I have yet to add the production roles, production company name and logo, and colour correct. Yoli must also film one more small clip (where it says Charlie and Ant - for antagonist - phone call).
My group and I decided to settle on Castle Farm as our final location. The barn itself was very large, with lots of old furniture, doors, ladders and lawn mowers in - its uniqueness stood out to us, and it definitely seemed like the sort of space you may play hide and seek in, which is of course key to our film opening. In addition to the barn, there were outside spaces and other sheds we could use to film. These extra gems could help develop our film (by contrasting our flash forward and present tense), or even just act as back up if certain shots don't work out.
Not only that, but getting permission to film at this location was so much easier than any of the other locations we looked at. The owner has also allowed us to practically film whenever we need to as well, so across the board, the location seems like a win-win.
Unfortunately, a lot of the abandoned hospitals near us have been demolished and/or built over, and those still around are too difficult to travel to. Not only that, but gaining permission to film in these locations has proven difficult, as many safety requirements may be unmanageable to meet.
Nonetheless, our group were not beat and we continued to look for new locations. Rather than look for abandoned hospitals, we looked for derelict places - whether it be parks, barns or buildings.
I believe that Yoli's idea is very modern and creative. It seems very 'Scream' like - almost taking the thriller genre and making it funny. With the popularity of the 'Scream' franchise and the fact that it revitalized the horror genre, this could be an interesting route to go down. However, the cast seems very big and it may be difficult, in the short amount of time that we have, to organise something of such a large scale. The idea of having a young girl climb over a fence in the opening certainly sounds exciting, but I doubt we would be able to get a hold of the correct safety equipment to pass the risk assessment to film this. I do agree however, with the teenage target audience, as the characters and crew are also teens.
Overall, I think Lauren's pitch was strong. I liked the idea of using technology to relate to a target audience of teenagers. One thing I might look to change however, is the amount of actors in the film. Where it seems there will be four antagonists, I would expect to at least half that, if not only focusing on one antagonist - as for me, this would make the idea a lot creepier and thus, scarier.
I think Winn's pitch is very unique. The idea of personal objects is well thought out, and something I think should be developed into our piece. I disagree with the homelessness aspect, as I believe this may wrongfully target a certain class or minority of people who can't even afford to treat themselves to see a movie. I also think the idea is a little disjointed, but perhaps that could be used to our advantage in order to reinforce the thriller genre.
Hello, I'm Kirsty- candidate number: 1029.
This blog is a collection of research, planning and documentation of production for the first year of my A-level course in media.
Our final product is a two minute film opening named "Hide and Seek", of the thriller genre.
Enjoy!
