Filming - The Third Day

On the Third Day of filming, the idea was to not only finish our Final Production in terms of footage before editing, but also to clear up and re-shoot any scenes which we felt needed perfecting. Therefore, this time around, as we had Ian, we initially decided to finish the final scene in the shower, which acts as the climax to our sinister production. We managed to bring together several important aspects of the filming during this final day, which we're glad of how they came out. At first, Ian had to lie back in the shower, as if he had been murdered. We then had to make convincing blood, and for this we used tomato sauce (yes, that old chestnut) watered down, in order to get the consistency right. Though red food dye may have worked better for the job, we felt that it would be a risk to get it near clothes, as it would most certainly dye the material of Ian's shirt and jeans if he was to come into contact with the mixture. The final appearance of the blood is not without fault, but it serves the purpose well, and we're glad of how it came out for the brief period of time where it was in shot.

During this scene, we also added the clip, which we hadn't originally planned, where John is assaulted as he investigates the body. There are clips throughout the production hinting at the murderer still being within the building, though initially we had only planned on the murderer's hand coming into contact with the bloody palm on the glass of the shower, rather than a full frontal attack. However, during filming we came to the conclusion that a more dramatic effect would be had if John was assaulted just as he watches Ian's body, which we found worked rather well in the context of the production. The lights go out and John has a towel thrown over his head, which flows into the credits and a blur of white noise, which finishes off the climactic scene well.

That same day, we also finished off and repeated several scenes that we had filmed the previous days which we weren't completely happy with, and we took advantage of the time at our disposal to add some neat affects. One was the scene with me and Ellis outside - which we later dubbed with speech - acting as the detectives investigating the murder of our colleague, which ends nicely with a sweeping cut of the curtain falling in front of the camera. Another shot which we added at this point was the complex shot with Ellis in the mirror, moving away when John walked in front of his silhouette, and though this shot took a long time to get right, we're glad with how it ultimately came out. In all, we were proud of our progress across the three days, and the fact that we stuck to the brief we had made ourselves (to have finished filming in three days), and the only task left to do was to begin the editing - a challenge that we found would be more complex, yet far more rewarding than we had thought.

Filming - The Second Day

The Second Day of filming was the least productive of both, as we didn't have Ian with us, due to events which led him unable to attend. Therefore, we were missing the victim of our piece (which is a problem when you're filming a murder-based thriller). Therefore, we had to work without him, and we decided collectively that on the Second Day, we would film everything that we could that didn't involve Ian. As Ian was only really used as an actor during the final, closing scene of the production, whilst lying dead within the shower, we found that we could film quite a fair bit of the action without him being there. We decided to tackle the scenes upstairs that didn't have Ian in them, and we agreed that on the Third Day, we'd finish off any bits that we needed to do.

The first major scene here was when John was coming up the stairs with a torch. This shot took a long time to get right, as the room was very dark and it was difficult to make John out amongst the dark resolution. However, the way in which the torch in the shot we decided upon flickers across the camera was an impressive (and intentional) use of the tools at our disposal. The effect gives a blur to the shot near the end, which then crossfades into a shot of the camera poised towards the mirror, reflecting John walking into the room, which was one of the three shots I mentioned earlier which I was happiest with; John isn't just filmed entering the room - the mirror reflects his entrance, giving an eerie and dramatic effect. The next shot which we did on the second day was also one of the most difficult (but rewarding) shots out of all of the ones we did. Whereas the knife rack shot on the First Day took a long time because of us wanting to be perfectionists, the following shot took an incredibly long time to get right due to it's complexity.

The main objective here was to have John walk in front of the mirror in the master bedroom, his torch shining in all directions as he looked for clues. Then, as he walked in the way of the camera, we would see a dark figure in the background, his head held low to increase tension and hide his face. As John walked back the other way, the figure disappeared as he moved in the way of the camera. Ellis was the figure, and this shot took a long time to perfect, as we had to time it just right. Quite often, Ellis would move out of the way too soon, or John would be too early in his delivery, and thus it took time to make the shots match up. In the end, we decided it was easier to take different parts of our 10+ shots and to join different bits of them together, rather than filming the entire scene perfectly (as it was really difficult to do, and we were on a time limit). The overall delivery we feel went well, and the shot(s) was one of the best within the production, in my opinion. This was the second of my three favourite shots, and I'm really happy with how it came out.

Overall, on the Second Day, we completed any filming that we did not need Ian for, so that on the final day, we could finish off filming and begin editing. The last shot we filmed this day was me and Ellis walking towards the building, so that our Final Production had some voice-work within it, as well as to add the scene at the end with the speech, to avoid the production seeming like a trailer. We are pleased with how the scene came out, and the way the curtain pulls across at the end was a pleasing finish to our piece.

Filming - The First Day

Upon the first day of filming, we had the basic plan in mind for what we were going to achieve across the three-day period. We had planned it so that the filming itself would take several hours to complete, as we would be repeating each and every shot a minimum of three times in order for us to have a wider variety during production to choose from, and to highlight the best clips from the array. This worked well, and on the first day we planned to do all of the scenes downstairs within the house. We worked chronolocially, as we felt it would be the best course of action, and that starting from any point other than the beginning would confuse us at a later stage. We filmed John entering the house, through the doorway, with the medium shot watching him cautiously observing the scene of the murder.

John was dressed in his coat, which was the nearest piece of equipment we could find to make him look like a detective. We were thinking originally to give him a pipe and a deerstalker hat, though that decision was scrapped as it was deemed 'too historic', and we didn't want John looking like a Sherlock Holmes impersonator. Therefore, we kept the clothing of John fairly simple; he looks like a protagonist, and it's quite obvious that his role is to investigate the murder at the estate. The medium shot turned to a low-angle shot looking up at John as he watches the surroundings, first glancing at the staircase, and then to the kitchen. We followed John through a side window in one of the rooms attached to the hallway, so that John is seen walking by (an effect that we are quite proud of, and it's conveniant that the window was there). We did, in retrospect, try to include a wide variety of shots within our Final Production, and I can personally think of three right now which were a brainwave we had, though I'll mention them at the key points where we filmed them. John is then shown walking into the kitchen, with an over-the-shoulder shot tracking his viewpoint. We later on added a clip where John is seen observing the table in the kitchen through the bannister of the staircase, though we filmed that on the third day as an addition. For now, John turned around a wall and noticed a knife rack ahead.

The knife rack scene was infamous within our filming, as it certainly took longer than any other shot to perfect. The ultimate aim was to make the scene from nightvision to standard, and vice-versa, occur without any difference in clip. Therefore, when we lifted the camera to track John's view as he closed in on the knife rack (point of view shot), we had to hold the camera directly still in midair, without a flicker of movement, in order to switch to the night vision shot, where we could see back in time to what happened, and to explain why the knife was missing. This shot took forever to do - I think the overall total was thirty-something minutes just filming the exact same scene over and over again, to make the scene change from standard to night-vision look flawless without any movement. Eventually we managed to hit the nail on the head and acquire the shot which we wanted, and we also managed to get a pretty impressive shot of the knife shimmering in the sunlight (even though we changed to resolution of the camera to make it appear dark), which works well and shows the villains evil intent.

During the first day, we also shot the clips of Ian on the floor, writhing in pain and struggling. Though in the Final Production, these shots were cut down drastically (a couple of seconds, if that), we actually filmed him struggling for minutes, so that we could get the best possibly shot. We're glad with how it came out, and though we'd have liked to have kept some of the other aspects of this scene within, we're glad with how quick shots work well in relation to the bursts of sound which accompany them within The Final Production.

The First Day was a success in our opinion, and we filmed much of the content of the latter two days.

The Blog and Our Final Production [Part 2]

The second part of my blog will be more focused than the first - where the first half covered everything from Film Noir to planning, and all of the productions which were filmed in between, the second part of my blog will be solely presented as a way to document what events occur during editing of our final production, how the filming went, and large-scale evaluations of every scene. It's a large task, but one that I'm looking forward to being a part of, and over the next few weeks, great advances will be made on the blog. The ultimate goal is to eventually have our Final Production hosted here, for public as well as private access, with detailed analysis of the key points, bits that we would like to have improved upon, and parts that we were especially content with.

At the time of writing, we are in the early stages of production. The filming has been completed (taking three days), and the editing of clips is halfway to completion (clips are in order but not cut in length). All we have left to do is add the soundtrack, any sound clips that we may need upon the way to create suspense, as well as dub the speech at the end, and then we will be realistically finished, and ready to complete the analysis. Right now, it's difficult to comment on exactly what will happen in later stages of post-production, but I am so far impressed with how the production has come out, and I just hope that all those viewing enjoy reading and viewing information about Our Final Production. Expect the video to be up within the week, as well as an out-takes and bloopers easter egg. I will be adding a lot of content over the coming days/weeks, and I look forward to seeing where the Blog takes us!


Alex's Blog: Part 2

An Introduction to My Blog

Music and Sound within Our Production

The soundtrack to our Final Production, without dubbing from other sound clips later incorporated. This is the standard song which plays during the backing of our film, lasting 2:01 minutes, and created using Audacity, with contributions and samples from www.freesoundproject.com. The keyboard is extracted from Garageband and the high notes are from a keyboard which I possess at home and recorded. Everything was remixed on Audacity, the two tracks (piano and ghostly ambience) joined together and turned into our backing track. The track took just over an hour for me to make, and I personally feel that it does a good job at expressing the mysterious and sinister nature of our piece, as well as emphasising the idea that our lead character is 'Not alone'. Here is the track:



The White Noise used within our Final Production. Though we only used individual samples on a short time listing of the track during the actual finished piece, I originally recorded the track as 40+ seconds long, mainly as we were unsure as to how long the credits (where the White Noise generally plays) would last. The White Noise was created from a sample found on www.freesoundproject.com, with an over-dub of me making noises with me breathing out through my teeth over the top. Cue much time spend on Audacity editting the sound into something good, which you will hopefully be able to see here:

Final Production Storyboards and Response

We showed our storyboards to several people, and generally feedback was positive. We spent a long period of time choosing names for our production, asking people to rate which name they thought worked best in the context of the piece. Whilst we initially chose 'Revenant' as the name for our thriller, we decided that the name, though possibly reflective of later scenes within the film, did not reflect the intentions of the opening. We renamed the production 'Not alone', playing on the idea that the detective is not alone in the house, and that the murderer is nearby. Other possible names for the production were 'The Glass Prison', 'The True Mirror' and 'Vacant', but we settled upon 'Not alone', as we feel it best expresses what our thriller entails. The feedback generated was useful in defining specific aspects of our shooting schedule; we will work on the feedback to create our final production.

People stated that the story idea was good, and that they would be interested in watching (eight out of eight people surveyed admitted to being interested), yet they also said that we may struggle to fit everything that we have planned into a two minute piece. We plan on filming more than two minutes of footage, and then editing and cutting it down until it fits the brief, though we will have to be aware of time passage, and how much work we are going to be able to keep from the filming. We do not wish to leave out any of the important scenes, for example the flashbacks and the finalising scene in the shower, and so time will be something we must consider.

People credited our choice of musical highlights too. We told those involved that we intend to use slow, quiet non-diegetic sound, with emphasis on specific points of the filming, such as sudden bursts and booms when critical events occur. We plan on finishing with white noise, which people said was a good idea, though they also said that it has been seen before, and if we are to incorporate white noise, we will have to try and use it to the best of our capabilities. Generally however, people were pleased with our initial idea, and the only criticism that we received was that our film may over-run, and that we might have to spend some time during editing working on the implementing credits and cutting down shots to fit the brief. However, the over conclusion was that people were glad with what we have achieved, and they seemed very enthusiastic about our production, even saying that some of our ideas they should have used themselves. Our differentiating camera angles and shots were credited, as was the general narrative of our storyline, and now we are just, as usual, looking forward to making our final production.