Joshua Baker - Director & Camera Man
Daniel Elliott - Editing & Camera Man
Alice Mckenna - Editing & Actor
Ed Green - Director & Producer
Tuesday 11 May 2010
The DVD Setup
When creating our DVD, we needed to design a menu. We had two suitable menus in mind which were both very similar. Below are the two options we were faced with:
We chose the bottom DVD menu to go with our film, our outakes and our Director's Commentary on the disk. I believe all of these were really important for filling out our piece and making it what it is now.
We chose the bottom DVD menu to go with our film, our outakes and our Director's Commentary on the disk. I believe all of these were really important for filling out our piece and making it what it is now.
Thursday 6 May 2010
La Muerte De La Vida - The Widow's Death
Below is our finished copy of 'La Muerte De La Viuda - The Widow's Death', displaying everything I have talked about in my blog, showing all the influences and cuts which have made it what it is.
Our Final Film -
Our Final Film -
Film Influences and Movie trailers
In this post, I will display our influences and what interested me when it came to making an unconventional horror movie. The Hound of the Baskervilles Clip is the first 10 minutes of the 2002 T.V movie while the Dr. Jeckyll clip is a very famous scene, portraying the schizophrenic side and where we got our influences from. Another film containing brilliant schizophrenic scenes is 'Psycho' terrifing audiences in 1960, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The Shining trailer is an expertly-made fan trailer, depicting the true horror of a 1980s classic.
Sin City trailer -
From the film Sin City, we took the idea of shooting a whole film in black and white, but with bursts of colour, such as the Rose or the Axe head being red. After consideration about it, we found that it would be too hard to do, so we settled with parts of the film being in black and white, instead of Greyscale. The diary entrance is shot in colour while the murder scene in black and white. We did this in order to back the murder scene look more eerie and satanic, adding to the religious feel of the piece.
The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 1 -
We took the idea of having a countryside ruling the plot of the film. In the Hound of the Baskervilles, the Moors control what characters do due to the dense levels of fog and the haunting and murderous bogs. In our piece, we wanted to create a countryside which really seperated the character from the rest of humanity, much like the Hound of the Baskervilles.
Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde "Free At Last" -
This clip shows the unveiling of Mr. Hyde as the murderous creature gets brought to the fore. In our piece, this mental disease controls Elizabeth the widow entirely, with most of the decisions being influenced by her darker side, much like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.
The Shining Tribute Trailer -
From the Shining we took the murder Weapon and the idea of having terrifing close-ups - Some which are seen in the trailer. The Shining influenced our piece a lot due to how influentual it was when it was released in the 1980s. Therefore we thought it only fitting to include one of the best murder weapons of all time, bringing the older audience back to this great classic.
Psycho trailer (1960) -
From Psycho we took the Schizophrenia idea as, along with our plot, Psycho relied upon this mental disease - As seen in the infamous Interrigation scene at the end when Norman Bates is caught. We tried to fit this disease in, so we would also have something to help pull the plot along and we worked off this 1960 classic.
Sin City trailer -
From the film Sin City, we took the idea of shooting a whole film in black and white, but with bursts of colour, such as the Rose or the Axe head being red. After consideration about it, we found that it would be too hard to do, so we settled with parts of the film being in black and white, instead of Greyscale. The diary entrance is shot in colour while the murder scene in black and white. We did this in order to back the murder scene look more eerie and satanic, adding to the religious feel of the piece.
The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 1 -
We took the idea of having a countryside ruling the plot of the film. In the Hound of the Baskervilles, the Moors control what characters do due to the dense levels of fog and the haunting and murderous bogs. In our piece, we wanted to create a countryside which really seperated the character from the rest of humanity, much like the Hound of the Baskervilles.
Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde "Free At Last" -
This clip shows the unveiling of Mr. Hyde as the murderous creature gets brought to the fore. In our piece, this mental disease controls Elizabeth the widow entirely, with most of the decisions being influenced by her darker side, much like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.
The Shining Tribute Trailer -
From the Shining we took the murder Weapon and the idea of having terrifing close-ups - Some which are seen in the trailer. The Shining influenced our piece a lot due to how influentual it was when it was released in the 1980s. Therefore we thought it only fitting to include one of the best murder weapons of all time, bringing the older audience back to this great classic.
Psycho trailer (1960) -
From Psycho we took the Schizophrenia idea as, along with our plot, Psycho relied upon this mental disease - As seen in the infamous Interrigation scene at the end when Norman Bates is caught. We tried to fit this disease in, so we would also have something to help pull the plot along and we worked off this 1960 classic.
Thursday 22 April 2010
The Prelimary Film
We completely our preliminary task in order to get a feel of the technology used in Media Studies and at the precision everything should be set. This was from where the chairs should be to how the door should be shut. Our original plan was to film it outside, however, although it had many interesting and thought-provoking shots, it lacked in real dialogue which was something the Prelim needed. Also, we had certain problems with lighting and sound due to the Sun and the wind. So, for our second attempt, we filmed it in the room next to the Media classroom with stairs leading down from it. In here we could change the lighting to what we saw fit and easily change the noise levels. The main camera angle we used was the ‘Over the Shoulder’ shot, meaning we had to run the scene twice. This didn’t bother us though because this camera shot was so easy to do, yet so effective.
Daniel Elliot was in charge of the recording, although it was a group effort to choose the camera shots. Joshua Baker played the employee while I played the employer.
Here is our script – JB = Joshua Baker, EG = Edward Green
EG: So you're here for the interview then?
JB: Yeah.
EG: You're late, why?
JB: My bus was late.
EG: Hmm ok, what qualifications do you have?
JB: I've got a diploma in something.
EG: Something.
JB: Yeah, I've got some GCSE's, something like that.
EG: Something, something like that, right that's not what we're looking for, get out. This is over.
JB: Fine
Here is our Preliminary Film -
And here is our Storyboard -
Wednesday 24 March 2010
The Pre-Production
Our film was filmed on Saturday 7th November, taking up about half a day to get all the shots we needed to but together our 2 minute introduction. We filmed it on the same day and didn't come back in order to make everything look the same.
Filming Schedule:
11.30am - Arrive at filming destination and make sure all props were present.
12:00pm - Scout around for inspiring shots and destinations to fufill the story.
1:00pm - Start filming.
2:30pm - Break.
2:45pm - Finish filming.
3:15pm - Pack up props, replace Church equipment and go home.
Below is our Questionnaire which we tested on 30 boys and girls between the ages of 15-19, which helped us understand our audience and create a piece designed just for them:
1. Do you like Murder Mystery Films?
2. Do you prefer a movie of the horror genre or something more light-hearted?
3. Have you ever watched;
5. What murder weapon do you find the scariest?
The public opinion was as follows:
1. 85% of people responded with a stong "Yes".
2. 67% of people responded saying they prefered an intense horror.
3. The most popular films were: Sin City, The Shining & Psycho.
4. The people who had seen them thought they were "Very Good" films.
5. 76% of people thought an Axe was the scariest horror weapon.
6. 58% of people thought a Church would be eerier due to it's religious feel.
From the results we decided to make an intense horror film and we worked off all four of our options: Sin City, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Psycho, The Shining & Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. From Sin City we took the idea of shooting our film in black and white. From Dr. Jeckyll and Psycho we took the idea of Schizophrenia, from The Shining we took the infamous murder weapon; The Axe as well as terrifing close-ups and from Sherlock Holmes we took the idea that nature controls the characters, adding to the feel of helplessness in the film.
Here are some clip ideas we drew up in order to use when planning and filming:
This is also a video with us talking about the possible ideas for the film:
Filming Schedule:
11.30am - Arrive at filming destination and make sure all props were present.
12:00pm - Scout around for inspiring shots and destinations to fufill the story.
1:00pm - Start filming.
2:30pm - Break.
2:45pm - Finish filming.
3:15pm - Pack up props, replace Church equipment and go home.
Below is our Questionnaire which we tested on 30 boys and girls between the ages of 15-19, which helped us understand our audience and create a piece designed just for them:
1. Do you like Murder Mystery Films?
2. Do you prefer a movie of the horror genre or something more light-hearted?
3. Have you ever watched;
- Sin City
- Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde
- Psycho
- The Shining
- Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles
5. What murder weapon do you find the scariest?
- A Knife (Seen in Psycho)
- An Axe (Seen in The Shining)
- Sharped Claws (Seen in A Nightmare On Elm Street)
- A Machete (Seen in Friday the 13th)
The public opinion was as follows:
1. 85% of people responded with a stong "Yes".
2. 67% of people responded saying they prefered an intense horror.
3. The most popular films were: Sin City, The Shining & Psycho.
4. The people who had seen them thought they were "Very Good" films.
5. 76% of people thought an Axe was the scariest horror weapon.
6. 58% of people thought a Church would be eerier due to it's religious feel.
From the results we decided to make an intense horror film and we worked off all four of our options: Sin City, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Psycho, The Shining & Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. From Sin City we took the idea of shooting our film in black and white. From Dr. Jeckyll and Psycho we took the idea of Schizophrenia, from The Shining we took the infamous murder weapon; The Axe as well as terrifing close-ups and from Sherlock Holmes we took the idea that nature controls the characters, adding to the feel of helplessness in the film.
Here are some clip ideas we drew up in order to use when planning and filming:
This is also a video with us talking about the possible ideas for the film:
Film Titles
Our Portuguese film title came about due to the fact that we would like to engage a smaller audience due to its specialistic theme. The title 'La Muerte De La Viuda - The Widow's Death' is what we came up with, with the translation coming underneath to explain to a larger circle of citizens.
Other titles included:
Taken
The Murder of the Widow
God's children
All of these titles sounded great but the reason for why we chose the 'La Muerte De La Viuda - The Widow's Death ' was because it simply told the audience what the film was about while sounding intense and scary at the same time.
We thought of the name due to the fact that the main character - The widow - gets murdered in the 2 minute opening sequence.
Other titles included:
Taken
The Murder of the Widow
God's children
All of these titles sounded great but the reason for why we chose the 'La Muerte De La Viuda - The Widow's Death ' was because it simply told the audience what the film was about while sounding intense and scary at the same time.
We thought of the name due to the fact that the main character - The widow - gets murdered in the 2 minute opening sequence.
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