Research Blog 3
12:51
Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K
It's great to know what other people think of this camera because I am then able to compare it to my own opinion of it and get an idea of how other people see things. Its great to have an open mind when it comes to these things because that is needed for the creative process.
First of all, heres a short film shot on a Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K:
The purpose of this task is to hear another opinion about the Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K as it is important because it is the camera we will be shooting with.
Here's a review of the camera made by a youtuber:
It's great to know what other people think of this camera because I am then able to compare it to my own opinion of it and get an idea of how other people see things. Its great to have an open mind when it comes to these things because that is needed for the creative process.
Research Blog 2
11:59
Fake blood
For this task I have researched the easiest and most effective way of make fake blood. Here is what came up:
Learning how to make fake blood is useful as it gives us an option if we didn't want to buy an amount. It gives us an idea of the costs and which option would be better to choose.
For this task I have researched the easiest and most effective way of make fake blood. Here is what came up:
- 16 Ounces of powdered sugar
- 1 Ounce of red food colouring
- 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder
- 8 Ounces of water
- Blender
- Paper towel for cleanup
- Tablespoon measurer
- Add 8 ounces of water to the blender.
- Add 16 ounces of powdered sugar to the blender (you can find a 16 ounce box of sugar at the store). Blend it up. You may need to turn the blender on and off a few times to make sure it blends well.
- Add 1 ounce of red food coloring (you can also purchase a 1 ounce jar at the store). Blend it up. Make sure it blends well.
- Add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder. Blend it up. Make sure it blends well.
- Use a spoon to scoop out some of the fake blood. Drip it on a paper towel our your hand.
Below is the video demonstrating:
Learning how to make fake blood is useful as it gives us an option if we didn't want to buy an amount. It gives us an idea of the costs and which option would be better to choose.
Research Blog 1
11:53
For my first research task I have looked into the top 4 most popular Virtual Reality headsets and how much money they cost, I have also researched the most popular games played on the VR headsets. Here's the answers:
Top most popular VR headsets:
- The Oculus Rift- £480.47
- Play Station VR- £319.52
- HTC Vive- £639.84
- Samsung gear VR- £78.46
Top 7 best selling VR games:
- Raw Data (HTC Vive exclusive)
- Subnautica (Oculus Rift exclusive)
- Lucky's Tale (Oculus Rift exclusive)
- ADR1FT (Oculus Rift exclusive)
- The Climb (Oculus Rift exclusive)
- Everest VR (HTC Vive exclusive)
- Shooting Showdown 2 (Gear VR exclusive)
Contacting the cast
02:46
After selecting people we think would suit these characters the best, we sent an email to see if they're interested. We will wait to get a reply and hope all of the people are interested in being involved.
Casting
10:38
Below is the list of people who we think would suit the roles needed in our opening sequence:
Main character:
Callum Henderson
English/ Good side:
Callum Henderson,
David Heal,
Edward Paradise
Russian/Bad side:
Myles Lamond,
Ben South,
Mike Niland,
Denys Sochinski.
Main character:
Callum Henderson
English/ Good side:
Callum Henderson,
David Heal,
Edward Paradise
Russian/Bad side:
Myles Lamond,
Ben South,
Mike Niland,
Denys Sochinski.
Costume ideas
01:51
For costume, we are going to be using costume likewise to the type of thing people would wear in the army. I have researched army costumes and costumes from action/fighting games like call of duty. We could dress the characters up in layered clothing to go alongside the cold weather and how people fighting would wear full protection or we could add to the whole unrealistic game element and dress them with little protection and layering, the only problem with this idea is the opening sequence will be shot outside in January- we cant let our actors get too cold.
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| £57.00 |
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| £31.99 |
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| £161.08 |
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| £9.95 |
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| £32.99 |
Storyboard
15:35
As a group, we worked on which shot will go where and what will happening in it, we discussed the locations and which characters will be included when in the story. After this was completed, with help from the plan, I did a drawing to go with each shot and then scanned it so we could access the images and the information digitally. Here they are:
Storyboarding progress
15:27
My group have decided that it would be a team effort when working out the order of the shots and so we created a google docs so that we were able to access and edit it from any of our computers.
As we were doing this, I quickly drew out sketches of the typed of shot, character positioning and location so that when it came to drawing the final storyboard, it would be well thought out and faster.
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| A photo showing we could open google docs on the different computers (taken by Nandi) |
As we were doing this, I quickly drew out sketches of the typed of shot, character positioning and location so that when it came to drawing the final storyboard, it would be well thought out and faster.
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| Here's an example of one of my quick sketches |
What is storyboarding?
01:04
A storyboard in media is a graphic representation of how your video will unfold.Each shot is represented through a number of boxes with illustrations or pictures. Usually with notes about what is happening in the scene at this point. Storyboarding is important because it's a great way to share your vision, it makes production much easier because it will help the production and editing team execute your vision and it will save you time on the day of the shoot. When making a storyboard, a thing to keep in mind is that it has to be logical and coherent, it should be visually consistent from beginning to end. Relevant details should be included like props, background setting and character so that the idea is as clear as possible.
Thriller mood board
13:05
Here I have created a college of images which relate to our opening sequence in some way. Included, there are images about gaming and hacking but also images showing death and war this reinforcing the plot line.
Target audience
11:59
Pitch Feedback
11:46
After pitching our idea we received some feedback which is listed below:
- Cut out someone typing (might be distracting and break tension)
- need hook, reel, catch
- Need world building moment, and three separate acts
- Need a resolution in mid - like potential saviour
- Look at gamer movie - use it for plot arc
- Mad skirmish to begin,
- Looks more like a tv show if you give too much information
- Have the opening as the video game, so you don’t see the killer- don't see the real world until the end, or not even revealing the hacker
- Make the battle more like a game- like tea bagging, or a character walking into a wall or using npcs to convey that the battle is within a game
- Need action sequence to start
- Someone gets hurt in battle, but actually hurts the player in real life, not revealing so much in the opening sequence.
- Some players when they get shot don't actually get hurt, but our main character (MC) gets a shot and it actually hurts him: “how did this happen” etc
- If revealing hacker, show him at the end
- Needs more ambiguity - more mystery, more like an opening
- 3 v 3 battle (more characters)
- Friends playing a game together
- Friends not reacting to getting shot “like wait for me to heal”
- One friend “ow that actually hurts, jesus”
- Show in the game him taking off something from his face
- Cut to real life, blood pouring out of the MC
- Show one character get killed, and then respond and take back weapon from old body.
- Sequence, going from cover to cover, until bomb goes off. One friend gets up and keeps going, realises other guy is not there, goes to him, very hurt etc, cant speak/winded, coughing up blood AND THEN
- VR COMES OFF
- Last 10 seconds is the VR coming off
- Body gag, eg players taking back old weapons
GET RID OF HACKER
Make sure that intro is ONLY ACT ONE, and not 1+2+3
Test Shoot Reflection
05:36
First of all, my group filmed and
edited a test shoot and after looking back on it we decided that idea really
wasn’t clear or interesting enough to be shown in that way this meaning our
idea didn’t translate well to film. After asking our media teacher what would
be the best thing to do at this point, he let us re-film a new test shoot. We
changed some of the shots and added more of a fighting/ thrilling sequence to
make it seem more interesting and to convey the idea in a more effective way.
We made it clear in the re-filmed test shoot what was real life and what was
virtual reality by costume and scenery change so that the audience could get a
better understanding of what was happening in the opening sequence. Our second
attempt translated well into film as the story was clear and you could
understand who the characters were and what they were doing. Although this may
be, I still feel our idea and our order of shots could be adjusted to create a
more thrilling atmosphere and potentially the game could be conveyed in a more
gruesome and gripping way. To make the opening sequence seem more like a
thriller, I feel as though there should be more action and killings and more
tension being built (maybe by sound) making the viewer understand the genre
better.
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| A screenshot from our test shoot |
I feel like for a test shoot the
pace worked ok however, I feel like the pace is too slow for a thriller. When
it comes to the actual opening sequence I feel like the pace would need to be
adjusted as it would work a lot better if the cuts were faster with smaller
shot durations. The reason for this being because it’s a thriller and will be
action packed, the adrenaline the character is feeling needs to be portrayed
through the pace so that the audience feels like they are interested and want
to carry on watching it.
I believe our idea is clear to
the viewer in the test shoot, although there could be a few tweaks made to they
have an even better understanding of what’s going on. It is obvious someone
gets killed though a virtual reality head set however, I feel there should be
more action in the real thing and maybe the killer doesn’t need to be revealed
thus building up more tension and urging the audience to want to watch the rest
of the film. Once the shots are reordered and there is diegetic and non-diegetic
sound added alongside the chosen mise-en-scene and camera angles, the narrative
will become clearer.
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| A behind the scenes shot of me and Chris in Action |
In both test shoots we shot, I
think that not as much tension as we desire is being created; although, in
my opinion, the second test shoot did in fact build more than the first.
I feel this is because some of the shots featured aren’t needed to make the
story understandable and instead just break the tension that could be
created. This meaning we need to think of ways which will build the
correct amount of tension needed for the genre to be clear.
I feel as though, in our second
test shoots the camera angles worked well. We included high angle shots to
connote dominance on the character below and we used a close up on the hacker
to exaggerate the seriousness of the character and make the audience feel as
though this person should not be messed with. The idea that it is close up
shows the character’s importance It might look good to include extreme close
ups to focus the audience’s attention on certain things happening. For example,
we could do an extreme close up on the hacker typing on the computers keyboard
which could be effective as it would be clearer what is happening and the fact
it may be shot so close would make it feel more intense. Extreme close ups may
also be effective when showing the character’s facial expressions. It being so
close to the pain conveyed in the hurt character’s face could shock the viewer.
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| A screenshot from our test shoot showing us all getting involved |
If we were to re-shoot the test shoot, I think that we would try
to get more footage because there was barely enough footage to make the shoot
work. Getting more footage than needed would mean we could add in extra
effective shots that make the sequence look more interesting. If there
was a larger amount of footage, more of a variety of shots could be used and it
would make it easier to edit. Also, a change of location could’ve been shown
more clearly and effectively with an establishing shot or a panning
establishing shot, also if we have access to one, a drone would be a great and
exciting way of showing the location or movement.
What didn’t work that well in the
test shoot was the switch between the action and the hacker, I feel like this
killed the intensity but could easily be changed when it comes to arranging the
order of the shots. Another thing I think could be changed is the style of game
being played. We figured the fighting-style game would be incredibly hard to
film and instead we could shoot a “call of duty” style game in a location like
a paintball course so that the idea that it is in a game would be clearer.
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| A behind the scenes photo of me- taken by Andrew |
We all worked well as team and
were able to work together and get things done without any fuss. We all
listened to what each other had to say and expressed our opinions on each of
these ideas. I also think the virtual reality idea worked really well adding emphasis
that the action that was happening was all in a game, shocking the audience
when the player is dead in reality as well as in virtual life.
In conclusion, I think shooting
the test shoot proved that our team worked well together with a positive
outcome. Although, I think our idea should be rethought in ways to ensure the
genre is very clear. I can’t wait to work with my group when shooting the real
thriller.
