We Went Shopping!

In preparation for filming, the gang decided it we should bond together over a shopping trip. We still needed supplies and props for our opening.

 We ended up only buying a handful of things, but some of them are crucial for our project.

This thing is a curling brush. We sprung for the cheapest one we could find in order to limit our budget. This thing is going to be our murder weapon. The black coloring makes it look even more menacing which is great given its intended purpose.

And this is a mirror. We have like two shots that require a mirror, but we felt it was worth the purchase. It's not a very large mirror, so getting a shot without the camera in it should be easy. If it was too big, the camera would likely appear in the reflection and ruin the shot. It's also black, but that isn't particularly relevant in this instance.

We also bought the ingredients required to make fake blood. I don't have a picture of them, but we did buy them. We got some food coloring, corn syrup, and organic brownie cookies. The last thing was for CJ to eat later.

We also got together a bunch of other props that we already own. We pulled together a bunch of laptops, tablets, and phones for the opening scene where the killer is surrounded by technology. We got CJ's lamp to help us with lighting our shots. We also got some sheets and blankets to block out the windows at our filming location, also to control lighting. We also brought some flashlights (our phones) and a small blanket to manipulate the lighting even further. One of us has fake glasses for the killer to wear, purely for one shot, but it's easy to do so we did it. Our actresses are going to bring some make up for us to use as props as well. Not for usage, merely aesthetics of the scene. Obviously we used a few more things here and there, but these are the most important things we ended up using other than people.

Storyboardin'

There's been some recent developments in terms of our project. We met up yesterday and our storyboard is finally complete. It doesn't look great but it serves its purpose.

So our storyboard is complete. We might have to change a few shots when filming, but this is essentially what we're going to be doing. I think it's pretty good, but I might be slightly biased.

But wait! There's more. We have a filming location. We're using the house of Sebastian's family member. We only have access to the guest room, but we can easily make that work. Through some set design magic we can make it seem like the two different rooms we need for the opening. There's a hallway we can use too, it's great.

We also got our acting situation in order. We are still using the girl who gets off work at 6:00, but hopefully it's not too big of a deal. The plan is to start filming Saturday and we should have enough time to film everything, but if we don't we'll finish Sunday. After that we get to worry about editing!

Back to Research

I felt now would be a good time to stop talking about bad news and do some research instead. So, I did some research on editing techniques in horror films.

One of the biggest things I got was how important timing is. Obviously this is important in every genre imaginable, but it has to much more refined for horror. According to an article by Videomaker, "suspense is built on the audience's anticipation. A video editor can use the timing and pace of clips to build this anticipation and grow suspense." Our project is a horror film and we're definitely trying to create suspense in the opening. Editing everything together is going to be very important. What stings do we want to use and where do we put them? Do we want this scene to be fast paced or slow and steady?  The same article states that "fast paced clips can build dramatic tension, extended uncut clips can be used to grow suspense." What we really want is a nice mix of both to make a truly great movie opening. The article has an entire section on audio as well. I read through it and its mainly about mixing together multiple different tracks and how the process is treated differently for horror. Luckily, I didn't know how to mix audio for other genres so the adjustment should be pretty easy to do.

I also found an article about the actual editing process and how to do it. Create a new project, import your clips, trim them down, etc. It was actually pretty helpful for when we do start editing. We're all novices in that department, so any bit of advice is useful. Here it is if you want to read it yourself.

There really isn't much to find on Google about editing films, much less for the horror genre. The majority of search results are things on slideshare.net and other websites like that that aren't very credible. I think I know what I should be doing for editing, but if I don't Google can't do much for me. My group and I might have to have a movie night where we examine scary movies and the editing techniques involved. I doubt any of us willingly want to do this, but we might have to for the greater good. The editing process is going to be a long one, lots of trial and error. We should learn a decent amount though.

References:

Gates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movie

Gates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movieGates, C. (n.d.). When Editing a Horror Movie or Thriller, Timing is Key. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.videomaker.com/article/c3/17056-when-editing-a-horror-movie-or-thriller-timing-is-key

Soriano, R. H. (2017, September 22). How to Edit a Horror Movie. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://itstillworks.com/12557564/how-to-edit-a-horror-movie

Houston, We Have a Problem

Well it's only been two days since the last blog, but everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong. Fun times over here.

We already decided to move on from the girl who leaves Wednesday because it simply couldn't work out. We found a new replacement already, but I'm not feeling too confident about it. If we give her the role of the killer she won't have to do too much acting and that might turn out okay. Now the better part, the actress I called a lock can no longer perform in our project. As you can imagine, this is a bit of a problem. We now need another actress to fill in on incredibly short notice. Oh I forgot to mention the replacement we found works until 6:00, so we're going to have to film almost exclusively at night. It being night isn't a problem because we wanted it to look like it was night time, but that's quite the limit to put on filming. It cuts out the majority of the day and the chances a location will let us use their house is much lower when it's dinner time and they're trying to relax.

Speaking of filming locations, the location we had is no longer available. My guess is some parents found out their child said we could borrow their house without the child asking first. And now here we are. We need another actress, possibly two, and a filming location. Our options are limited now that it's so short notice, so this is going to be a struggle.

We've decided we need to start filming by next Saturday, but we have more important things to fix right now. The problem with Saturday is that this actress still gets off work at 6, which means we have to film Saturday night. Saturday night also happens to be Passover, so guess who's busy. I think we've decided I'm going to go to our future location and help set up, but I'll have to leave before we actually begin shooting the opening.

On the bright side, all three of us can get together on Tuesday to finalize the story board. This is the one bit of good news I have though. Actually, the weather is pretty nice right now, so there's that.

Location, Location, Location

We finally got a location to film our project! One of Sebastian's friends is letting us use their house for filming. We really only need a couple of rooms so it should be fine. We're not really going to be showing the exterior which is probably for the best. The house would not look very isolated, which as mentioned earlier is rather important for horror films. I think this location will be more than adequate for what we have in mind and I'm excited to start filming.

As for our acting situation, we also got a second actress. There's a slight problem in that she is going out of town on Wednesday so we'd have to film everything before then. I don't think that's very likely. We're probably going to continue searching for a different actress so we aren't rushed to finish filming. Our second actress should be a lock though. They both seem like decent enough actresses. Not experts, but it's not like we're using an Oscar winner or anything.

Who knew scheduling something that took 5 people, 6 if you count the person lending us the house, was so difficult? We're really struggling to find a date to begin filming. We originally wanted to finish story boarding on Monday and then film the rest of the week, but it looks like that isn't going to happen. Somebody was busy Monday so we had to push planning back to Tuesday. Which means we definitely have to find another actress because we're not filming everything on one day. We can't film Thursday either. We're going to have to figure something out, but it's not looking great. We'll probably work something out, but this scheduling thing is really starting to stress me out.

When everyone is busy all the time.

Things Are Coming Along Nicely

There have been a few developments since the last time I actually talked about our project. I'm pretty sure we have our actresses selected. Unfortunately, I couldn't play a teenage girl, so we had to find two young ladies to feature in our film opening. They're CJ's friends, but they still have decent enough talent for what we're trying to do. It's not like we can go out there and get a Hollywood actor to star in our project. These two should do just fine with what we need them to do.

We also have a much greater understanding of what our opening is going to cover. It's going to start with a scene where we get to know our main character, Britney. She's a rich teenage girl who is incredibly obsessed with social media and her popularity. We're going to learn all about her and her life through a narration. Britney is a serial killer, but that isn't made clear until later. We're going to be working our credits into this scene and then end it with Britney being blocked by her "friend' on social media. We'll likely use a dolly zoom on Britney's screaming face and then cut to black. This is where the title of our unnamed movie will go. This scene should be 30-45 seconds at most.

The next scene should be the rest of the opening, but we are talking about including a third scene. It will be Tiffany, Britney's friend, being stalked through her house and eventually killed. Britney is the one who murders her, but that won't be known until the very end. The scene will start with Tiffany getting ready to go to bed when a window breaks in the background. She then gets some sort of text from Britney asking if She's okay; Britney just saw her window break. Yes, that idea came from Scream. (Skip to 1:10 for the inspiration)

 The rest of the scene will be Tiffany freaking out as she hears someone getting closer to her. She won't know what to do and will be texting Britney for help/advice. Britney will be responding from inside the house and will use the notification sounds from Tiffany's phone to track down her victim. We felt this was a pretty good way to incorporate social media into the plot, one of our goals from the beginning of the project. The scene will then end with Tiffany getting bludgeoned by some sort of make up supplies, maybe a hairdryer. Britney still won't be shown, but something that links back to Britney will be. We were thinking some sort of bracelet that she was seen wearing in the opening scene. This is ideally where our two minutes are up and the opening ends, but CJ wanted to discuss adding a third scene. We'll see how that goes. Remember when I titled a post "Who Needs an Outline?" Turns out we actually did need an outline. I kind of knew this when I wrote that post, but now we actually have one! We should start filming late next week and finish it over spring break. Here's hoping things go according to plans.

References:

Craven, W. (Director). (1996). Scream [Video file]. United States: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Retrieved March 18, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWxSBbBX4fs&ab_channel=Movieclips

Scream (1996). (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2018, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117571/

Meetings

Yesterday, we had meetings in class with other groups. Sebastian, CJ, and I got split into different groups where we gave ideas to others and got feedback on our project. The results were interesting to say the least.

CJ said his group was mostly fine with what we had come up with. They gave us some ideas to improve our project. I don't remember them right now, but you're going to have to believe me. Sebastian's group felt we should make our introduction of the main character shorter. They wanted us to get into the meat of the movie quicker, while using more elements of horror throughout. They also recommended creating a mock draft of the film to see our ideas in action. We're probably going to do that just to see how well our ideas work. I don't know everything that happened here because it wasn't my group, but supposedly they liked some of our ideas, just felt a few things needed to change.

That leaves my group. Boy, was that fun. My group was very against us including a murder in our opening 2 minutes. They were adamant that we should focus on introducing and developing our killer. This is the exact opposite of what Sebastian's group said. I got into a long argument with my group about having a death in our opening. They said it was a really bad idea and argued no other movie did it. Just focus on character development. I said we were developing the character at the beginning, then using the murder to develop some of her tendencies as well as the fact that she's a serial killer. That went back and forth for a good 15 minutes. I don't really know why they were so against the killing taking place, it's definitely going to a point of development for our character. Still annoyed about that as I'm typing this.

When I got two contradicting pieces of advice.

We got some good advice from the group meetings. Sebastian and CJ still really want to include the murder, and so do I. So that's probably still going to happen. My group wanted us to develop why our character was a murderer more than we already did. We might end up doing that. We also got some good advice for our lighting and framing during production.

References:
Silicon Valley [Television series episode]. (2015). In Silicon Valley. HBO.