Location Information!

So it is clear, I have been allowed access to Chirst Church for my filming thanks to Vicar Keith Crocker. I have posted a picture of the church (Not very recent but it was all I could find) and thought I should research the history of it, so here we go.

"Christ Church has stood for 167 years as the place of worship in New Catton. Between 1816 and 1821 there was a sudden influx of agricultural workers into Norwich. New Catton was established outside the city walls to the north as a distinct settlement of about 1100 people, many of whom became weavers.
Christian work among the new settlers began in 1818 with the establishment of a nonconformist Sunday school.
By the 1830s the settlement was expanding and on 23rd June 1840 the foundation stone of Christ Church New Catton was laid. Christ Church was the first church to be built outside the city walls and was designed in the Gothic Lancet style using flint and gault brick dressing – both locally sourced materials, characteristic of the region. The entire cost of the work was £2400. The Bishop of Norwich consecrated the church on 16th November 1841, the occasion being marked by a procession and demonstration by the Chartists.
Christ Church is a grade II listed building and is in regular use for worship, marriages, baptisms and funerals. It is an important part of the heritage of Norwich." -Taken From Here.

I am yet to arrange specific filming times with my acting crew, so I will keep my blog updated when I have arranged time slots!

Research- Extended.

So, as you kmnow from my previous post, I have looked into the demonic-of-horror sub genre as this is the style of which I would like to produce my film.
From that, I have continued to look into other modern conventions that are used in the filming of this style such as filters, lighting, location, and other props such as costumes etc.

Lighting:

From extensive research into how lighting can effect mood and atmosphere, I have found the following:
To play on the audiences fears, I should use a dim lit environment. To add a sense of fear of the main character, I should use pale coloured lighting effects possible from a filter, to give him a tint of green or yellow (dull/dark).
For the actual location, I am using a church, and lighting is going to play a big part on how the audience reacts to the film. For example, if I filmed in bright light then it would not give the same feeling as darkness, with candles used as lighting.
I shall probable use candles as the flickering of the flame will build tension, and the fire from the candle will produce bolder shadows than natural light.

However, with the camera that I am filming with, if I was to film in darkness, the image quality would be greatly reduced, making it all fuzzy/grainy due to lack of light.
After looking into this, I found other camera's that can cope with filming in the dark due to a lower aperture to allow more light into the lens, but due to limited resources this is not an option so I am going to do it this way:
I shall film it in the day, and when editing, I shall apply video filters and colour correction to make it appear that it is in fact set at night, but in reality I have just edited it to look this way.

But, through doing this technique, as far as I know, I am unable to use candles as they will not show up after editing etc. so I shall have to recreate the candlelit feel by using lighting effects while editing.

Filters

As mentioned above, I shall be applying filter effects in my editing software due to the limited capabilities of my recording device.
The filters I shall use will give a great atmosphere to my film, by creating dark lighting while keeping video quality.

Costume

For the costume, I wish to use a clerical priest gown (example below) for the priest, and normal clothes for the other characters (dull coloured as not to stand out).

Sound

As I am filming in a church, there will be an expected echo due to the acoustics of the room used, but this will be incorporated into the mise-en-scene (it will keep things realistic in a sense the audience will not find peculiar).
And as for non-diegetic sound, I shall possible use a church organ track (a convention used in church horror).

Props

For the props, I shall hopefully be using the list I have collected below:
-Cleric costume.
-Christian relic (crucifix)

At the moment I have not thought of any other props to use.

Shots

Refer to my storyboard for a detailed list of shots that shall be used.
I intend to use shot/reverse shot to show character focus (if the priest turns to look at someone), the 180 degree rule for any long shots used, a time lapse for the establishing shot, POV shot to show things from the characters point of view, ECU/close up shots to show character emotion, depth of field shot to keep the foreground/character in focus, while allowing the background to blur.

Side Note

I thought it would be good to include the name and information of the device I shall be recording with etc.
I am using a Logitech C910 HD 1080p webcam with dual microphones. Despite it being a webcam, it is really good quality and is good for recording with. I will record in either 720p or 1080p, and shall be editing using Adobe After Effects CS4.
Any music tracks that I use are royalty free, and are not copyright, or are made by myself in an audio editing program.

Main Task- Shooting Sequence

I have also finished the shooting sequence for my main task (the order of which I shall film each shot) so here it is:

1. Shot 1

2. Shot 5

3. Shot 6

4. Shot 7

5. Shot 3

6. Shot 2

7. Shot 4

(Refer to my storyboard for details on each shot).

Main Task- Storyboard

Well I wrote this up on paper originally but had to retype as I couldn't get it onto my blog otherwise, so enjoy!

Shot 1:
Establishing shot- Time lapse of the church (transition of day to night)
Camera zooms through the church window (moderately fast paced)
Sound: ‘Woosh’ noise (non-diegetic) as the camera zooms.

Shot 2:
Camera carries on zooming but slows down to capture the surroundings and build tension in the audience, as well as to give the audience time to see the characters. Camera continues to zoom until reaching the priest.

Shot 3:
Close up of the priest (tilt camera up) to show that this is the main character. The priest then steps down from the alter and the camera loses the tilt so symbolize the priest getting on the same level with the other characters, he then walks towards the aisle.

Shot 4:
Point of view (POV) shot from the priest’s point of view. Camera pans left-right (mid shot of the surroundings), camera twitch effect to show abnormality in the character. Camera stops and stays focused on a boy sitting with the rest of the characters. Only he is showing emotion (confusion) while the rest are acting as if they are in a trance. Camera slowly zooms to show the priest walking towards the boy. The boy’s emotion turns from confusion to raw fear.
Sound: Background build-up music to add to tension.

Shot 5:
Shot/reverse shot (priest/boy) ending from the boy’s POV, camera zooms while slightly shaking, to show the boy also getting up but trembling, camera tilts up to show the boy as weak and the priest as powerful.

Shot 6:
The camera suddenly focuses on the priest’s face, as it warps into a demonic form, then the camera sharply switches to the demonic priest’s POV (red filter applied, to show the demonic priest as evil by seeing everything in a red tinted light).

Shot 7:
The demonic priest extends his right hand while looking down on the boy, as the happens the boy looks terrified and the priest violently opens his hand. The camera loses focus on the background and the boy screams which echoes throughout the church room as his soul is ripped from his body. The empty shell of the boy now falls but the camera cuts before he hits the ground.

Special Effects Editing Research!

So, like I previously mentioned, I am incorporating the idea of demonic horror into my main task, so I thought I should try out some special effects testing, and as I made it around halloween time I thought it'd be perfect for my media task also.

Initial Thoughts & Research For Main Task

Ok, so earlier today my class and I were discussing the main task, which is "the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes."
For my genre, I have decided to choose horror/thriller, although I will most probably be using the horror-of-demonic sub-genre.
The horror-of-demonic sub-genre was established in the late 20th century from American culture, and includes elements of demonic horror in the film. Also incorporated closely in this sub-genre is spiritual horror. This is the element of including spiritual activity.

After researching, I have decided to base my story in a 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' fashion, with the main character as a Priest. But deep in his inner soul lies a demon, that possesses his conscious mindset.

I would like to use a local church as the location for filming, to build on the religious background, and because I think that it will be easier to create the desired tension in the audience. An empty, dark church can be seen as a semiotic for things such as the paranormal, fear, isolation and such.

My Storyboard For Preliminary Task W/ Shooting Sequence

Shooting Sequence (Order of Recording):
1. Shot 4
2. Shot 5
3. Shot 2
4. Shot 1
5. Shot 3

Review: Kett Creative Arts

Over the course of today, I was browsing http://kettcreativearts.blogspot.com/ for information regarding the AS course and also to see some past examples of students blogs/work.

I found this website to be extremely useful when I needed information and other necessary resources. On this website I found various links which led to external websites such as http://ocrmediastudies.weebly.com/. This website in particular listed everything that the exam board expects, as well as examples and information for each topic/unit.

On the Kett Creative Arts website, I found http://kettcreativemedia.blogspot.com/ listed as a partnered blog, and this contained yet again a vast amount of information regarding camera techniques.

I have favourited all three sites mentioned and will continuously use them to harvest information regarding thee subject throughout the school year.

Preliminary Task Uploaded

This is my finished preliminary video task for AS Media studies, incorporating things such as match on action, the 180 degree rule, short/reverse shot etc.

Thanks for watching.

Video Uploading!

Sorry for the delay, but after re-recording my preliminary task, I have finished, and name it "The Key". I am currently uploading it to vimeo.com and will post it here when it has finished uploading. Following this, I shall be getting round to uploading copies of my storyboards, and I shall do a narrative of my video explaining the techniques I used and why I did them.

Update

I would like to use this post to update you on my filming status and other assignments, so here goes...
Firstly, I am yet to film my preliminary task, as the first went a little 'off task' so I will hopefully have that sorted, as well as some still images and maybe some recording of the film being produced.

Second on the agenda, is a review of the Kett Creative Arts website, I will have that finished for the weekend and posted.

Rethink!

'Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom s/he then exchanged a couple of line of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule'

After finding out that the preliminary task is not actually a trailer, i have rethought my ideas and will be finishing filming tonight, and the finished version with all necessary editing will be sorted by sunday. I have enrolled the help of friends to act in the preliminary task for me and i will be using Catton Park as a venue. My original idea will probably be incorporated into this, although with much less detail, as i will probably use parts of it for my main task at a later date.

So here's what I have so far:

• My storyboard
• Actors
• Venue

I will later update this with the results of tonights final piece of filming.

Preliminary Task- 2 Minute Video Trailer

Name: (To be announced)
Runtime: 2minutes (max)
Genre: Action
Characters: The Inspector, Shadow, Rogue Officer.
Setting: A dark corridor leading to a bare room.

Plot: An inspector is sent to investigate the murder of an ex-convict who was gunned down in a brutal drive-by two weeks previous. All evidence points to none other than the inspectors previous colleague, who turned rogue after his brother was man-slaughtered by a gang.

History: After this, he went rogue and vowed to hunt down his brothers murderer: legal or not. He lost his job and went on a violent hunt for the man who took the life of his sibling, and his friend (The Inspector) has to investigate the murders of the people Rogue has killed.

Overview: The Inspector goes to a desolate asylum of which he was told that rogue was hiding, locates him in a room and sits briefly with him, before handing him a copy of a legal document that makes Rogue jump up and pull out a gun. The Inspector did the same thing in synchronization with his ex-partner, and then the screen turns to a black frame, and you hear a gunshot, who dies?