Production Shoot: 09/12/12

On Sunday morning, we walked with the equipment to the chosen location behind ''The Halfway House'' pub in Whitworth. Although we hoped for some frozen dew glazed over the marsh-like field, the wind-flow sweeping across the high, amber hued grass accentuating the atmosphere of emptiness against the grim backdrop of naked, lifeless and blackened trees. We began by quickly filming Kieran as a reporter, which Tom set up facing an active road simply to show that there is life at this point, and I gave Kieran some ideas for dialogue and hand gestures to denote that he is a news reporter. When we were editing at school we felt that the intro sequence of the trailer was lacking the clues needed to imply the possible causes of the cataclysm in the film; so we decided to film several sharp shots of action and put them into the static sequence to mix it up as opposed to having on single sequence of static followed by an atomic blast, which in hindsight appears sloppy. 

Continuing on from this, me and Kieran were involved in a fight scene that will be used as a montage sequence that is a common convention in film trailers. We had to choreograph ourselves in a way as to make the scene look gritty and realistic. We concluded that in future any fight scenes should incorporate the setting during the planning stages, otherwise, on the day of filming, we sometimes waste time having to change the devised shots. We mutually agreed to carry on with the rest of the shooting without the meticulous detail we generally put into every shot, reasoning that it was too time consuming and every second hurt in the blistering cold. 

I was again filmed mostly in my role as the war veteran, although I did have some time with the camera in which I tried to create some more shot variety such as looking down the barrel of the gun and Tom dropping to his knees. After that, we subsequently went home because we decided beforehand that there wasn't much else to do.

Production Shoot: 21/11/12

During the school week  Tom employed the help of his friend, Curtis, to play the role of our main antagonist - the Enclave government leader. He fit the sophisticated yet menacing role we were going for, especially when we fitted him with a suit, which he kindly provided himself. On the day of filming, we used our free hour to film enough shots to convey Curtis' character being the antagonist, though with some enigma surrounding him.

We started by going to our deputy head's office, as the chosen location, and he gave us some privacy to film. We positioned objects in the setting, such as chairs and computers, to make the setting appear like a workstation doubled up as a meeting room, though also containing elements that connote warfare and action. This included us introducing some of our own props for this, including toy gun replicas (for which we asked permission from the school to use out of public, which was granted) and maps sprawled over a table in the centre of the shot. In addition to this we added the composite of homely features, like the Union Jack pillow, to give the room unusual character and comfort which, making a contrast in juxtaposition to the malicious intent of the antagonist and neglect of the country, we thought would make a good effect.

The actual filming ran smoothly as the room was easily accessible and accommodated our equipment nicely, allowing us to make full use of angles in the room. Then we tweaked the settings of the camera to make the picture darker, giving that 'underground gloom' as if the facility is located underground, secluded from the hazardous wastes above. It also made the shots appear sincere and further boded the possibility of the character in the shot being shady, similar to the setting. We had to look for features that would create the connotations, and denotations, needed for us to introduce a character's archetype in a tiny frame of time.

I was not in the scenes themselves for a change, I was mostly behind the camera trying to manipulate the angles in such a way to frame Curtis effectively and connote that he is a powerful, foreboding leader.

Once the filming had been done, we went to our Media lesson and edited the footage in Pinnacle.

Rough Cut Evaluation and Improvements

Here are the comments made by our class:

Improvements

Remove car sounds

Add dialogue scenes + news reports for narrative exposition and characterisation

More sound effects

Bus stop scene – Strobe lights in pinnacle and sound effects

Start with disruption, then create pace and drama to separate parts

Good Elements

Lots of good shots, but needs to be more like a trailer

Music creates atmosphere

Lots of enigma, too many

Add more colour filters such as Chroma key to wash out certain colours

Obvious people are dead and the world is desolated

From this we have established that we have a good variety of shots, as well as some action scenes and establishing some narrative. However, we must add more trailer conventions such as narrative voice-overs and dialogue, with additional action montages that will really enable an audience to grasp what the film genre is, what conventions it might follow, and most importantly what the story consists of.

We are currently at an early stage in the editing process as we have not got all of our shots and we are trying to put the trailer in a structure which makes good sense and flows well - this will be accomplished by integrating some of the above.

Production Shoot: 17/11/12

We arrived at the abandoned, decrepit factory near Spotland in the morning and set up our equipment within close proximity of the areas boundaries. We filmed some shots of the building's facade, and a couple of long shots showing myself and Tom running from the area to connote some element of peril, though without delving into the source of that peril which forms enigma codes. Following on from this, we made the most of the drab, overcast weather by filming Tom and I roaming a road. Kieran manned the camera whilst I had to play my role. For the shot-reverse-shot Tom filmed me as we walked to look as if we were in real conversation, and I did the same for him. Furthermore, we shot a snappy fight sequence including Kieran and Tom. We worked together with me setting up the camera and trying to frame the scene properly  whilst the others coordinated themselves.

We did confront a couple of problems here, such as the sporadic rain showers which sometimes intruded upon the shots we were trying to create. It also meant we had to protect the integrity of the camera with our coats etc. whilst it rained which, given the on and off nature of the rain showers, became time consuming and equally irritating. Fortunately, what boded as another problem, soon became an opportunity to advance our project. A group of local kids came across our filming area and, instead of causing a fuss, suggested Tom to go with them to scout around the abandoned factory with them as they were familiar to the area, so he went with them while me and Kieran guarded our equipment and looked over some filming notes.

After Tom explored the building and gave us numerous ideas to discuss. Soon we were inside and making the most of this hidden gem of a location. Inside we met a group of men who were doing a photography project who also advised us on the buildings interesting areas. We even managed to employ the use of two of them to be in our production as the two gave us masks, and actually brought their own gas masks which we thought would really embellish the post apocalyptic themes we are going for.  I was in many of the shots including the conversation, running away from the factory and action shots, whilst also doubling up as a cameraman when needed. Overall, the day went well and we got the work done that we had planed to, with the addition of another unexpected but great shot. We have learnt that improvisation in a location is very useful to come up with creative ideas to add to the trailer.

Production Shoot: 15/11/12

Thursday 15^th November

This time we filmed some dialogue as from a class feedback session on our rough cut, it was obvious that more narrative elements such as dialogue would be needed to firmly establish the narrative. So we filmed some lines in time for before it went dark. Then when it did go dark, we improvised and used a flashlight to act as a ‘search light’ which helped add to the atmosphere. I was in my role again, so I mostly just acted, but also helped to set up the shots and we came up with some ideas through improvising with the areas in the location that were available to us.

After this we went to a construction site where which we thought would add some more variety to the scenes. Here we again used a flashlight, and got some more lines with body language as well. This part of the filming went less smoothly, as we couldn’t hear the dialogue too clearly on the camera, but we will improve this by adding voice-overs if needs be. Like last time, I just acted in this part, but me and Tom brainstormed some ideas for dialogue and helped Kieran set the camera up appropriately.

Production Shoot: 27/10/12

Saturday 27^th October 

Today, we found a river bed that acted as a nice location for some environment focused shots to get across a post apocalyptic feel, as the sky was very grey and it began to rain. We managed to capture the rain and the mood came across well, but because of the rain we had to shield the camera from it to avoid any damage. We could have waited for the rain to die down or perhaps use an effect in Pinnacle which would have been easier perhaps. We have decided that next time, should it rain, that we will use an umbrella to keep the camera out of the rain; this is simpler and more effective, although sound may be affected by the impact of the rain on the umbrella.

At the river bed I was filmed with Tom mostly as our characters were looking across the water and we also tried to film some dialogue where me and Tom improvised some lines together.

We then continued to the factory where we filmed some good action shots of us running for the action portion of the trailer and some other miscellaneous shots. This went smoothly as we had planned it out before hand and stuck to the shot list, as well as our previous use of this location. We could have possibly filmed more if we wanted to but we felt enough footage had been filmed.

Here I was again being filmed mostly as me and Tom are the main focus of the trailer, we filmed some POV running shots with the steady cam that look very professional and action movie-esque. This meant that today we managed to film a good variety of shots and locations, meaning that it was a successful day overall.

Planning: Institutional Information

A few studios that have done Post-Apocalyptic films

Silver Pictures: an American film production company who produced Book of Eli. All movies after Ricochet have been distributed by Warner Bros and its subsidiary New Line Cinema, which we could use as our distributors due to their links with Silver Pictures.

Their logo is very enigmatic, using a futuristic square shape. The silver logo on a black background helps it to stand out, as well as connoting modernity, which seems to be important to their image as a contemporary film production company – this can be seen more clearly in their logo animation, as CGI is used to create a futuristic, city-like landscape; showing that the studio is looking to the future. Furthermore, the layout of all the individual squares is complex as they are all different. This complexity could show that they are willing to take on huge, big budget productions that are at the cutting edge of technology and cinema i.e. CGI, post production techniques, sound engineering etc.

The animated logo sequence:

2929 Entertainment: has a hand in many different media outlets e.g. film and television production, film distribution, theatrical exhibition, home entertainment, television, and syndication. They produced the Post-Apocalyptic film ‘The Road’.

This logo is more traditional, and doesn’t hint at much, apart from possibly the target symbol which resembles a reticule which subtly hints that they produce action-orientated films. The colours used are also quite varied, with blue, black, orange and white which may connote they have lots of variety in the productions they have worked on. This is true if you look at the many films they have produced from many different genres.

Original Film: produced I Am Legend among many other blockbusters such as xXx, Evan Almighty and Fast 5 which shows they have a very good track record of big films. On their website they state this “Original: A Commercial, Film, TV, Digital and Music Video company housing Cannes Gold Lion winning directors, editors, and motion graphic artists that creates innovative content across all forms of media… and of course, in an original way.”  http://www.originalfilm.com/

The logo is similar to Silver Pictures’ in the colour scheme and tone it has employed, using a black background with a silver, sans-serif font. Although it is more detailed, in that it has used a gradient, metallic colour which makes it look as if light has been shined onto it, and it looks more professional than just a standard grey or silver.

Overall, we think Silver Pictures are the best production company for our film, as they have a good track record and links with Warner Bros. who are one of the big American distributors allowing us to reach a worldwide audience, with the actual film, our trailer and advertisement. Their logo is also quite enigmatic, and futuristic, which fits well with our film as it is Post-Apocalyptic, and set in an ‘alternative future’; which is what Book of Eli is also about.

George Miller

George Miller produced the Mad Max Trilogy of films, which are some of the best renowned and respected films in the Post-Apocalyptic genre. He co-founded Kennedy Miller Mitchell Productions, where he made this trilogy and it became the most successful film production company in Australia. They have produced other big budget films such as Babe and Happy Feet which have both been critically and commercially well received.

 

Hughes Brothers

The Hughes Brothers directed and co- produced the Book of Eli with Silver Pictures, which would make the creative and co-operative process with them much more hassle free, as they have worked together before, and achieved a good result. They have also worked with Warner Bros. before, which would also make distribution to a wide audience a much smoother process.