WE'VE FINISHED

After a lot of editing, and chopping, and coming in our free's, we've finally finished our 4 minute film.

It's 5 minutes 1 second, to be exact.

It took a lot of extra recording, and using videos from youtube.com.
Some of the footage was either too long, or too short, so we sometimes had to duplicate scenes; making our sequence very complex.

Here is a photo of the final piece on final cut

We are editing the sound now and taking some sound clips from youtube to use in our film. We have used a clip from family guy, a chris crocker video and charlie bit my finger.
Other sounds we are using include some of the special effect sounds that are ready made, like gun shots and sirens.
We also completed the script and recorded ram, rachel and james performing it, so now we just need to match the sound to the film.

Final cut

As Rachel is editor, she has been editing our piece to make it all the linear narrative we want. We're using mostly cuts, with no fades. There will be very little editing techniques used. Sound will play a big part in the piece.

We have to have our completed film by next wednesday, so we'll most likely be working in our frees to complete it.


YAYYYYYY :)

Filming stills

Here are some stills from our film so far.

ITS GOING VERY WELL!! :)

FILMING

Filming is going very well.

We're currently at 3: 20, with not much footage left to film.

The spoof's went very well, we've currently done:
- charlie bit my finger
-chris crocker
- rambo
-twilight
-snakes on a plane
-famiy guy (stewie and louis scene)

we're planning on doing the lonely island song (cool guys don't look at explosions) at the end, as a finale. we'll do all of the characters walking toward the camera in slow motion with an explosion behind them. this is a cliche scene for action films, and also incoporates the spoof of the lonely island song.

NEW STUFF

At the moment of filming, we're finding it really difficult to come up with a good story that'll last 4 minutes.
So we've decided to do spoof's of mainstream films and popular youtube videos.

Our first one was of rambo. and we're got lots more ideas.
We're feeling positive about this idea, as it's fun, and something that the majority of our intended audience (male and female, 11-22 year olds) will recognise.

Here are a few ideas we had:

- rambo
- twilight
- charlie bit my finger
- salad fingers
- the matrix
- chris crocker
-charlie the uncicorn
-perez hilton
-lonely island track (jizz in my pants)
-snakes on a plane
-myspace and facebook
-peanut butter jelly time
-stewie from family guy
and lotssss more.

Here are a few videos from youtube, with the spoof's we're hoping to achieve.

Filming Continues

Filming is progressing well and so far we (Mikayla, Ram And Rachel) have recorded our main character meeting his love interest, the news report, the main character and love interest's first kiss and they have met up with another surviving bear.
Filming in stop motion takes quite a long time and some things are difficult to show, like when the zombie bears turn over the news desk, which is quite jumpy.
In order to make our film last over 4 minutes we have had the idea of referencing more things from popular culture than just zombie films, like for example, the other surviving bear that our characters meet is wearing a headband modeled on the film Rambo.

Filming

We have been filming for the past 2 lessons now, and it has been going very well.

Me (ram) and Rachel have set up some white card, and filmed the first 40 seconds.

We're a bit worried we won't have enough of a storyline to last 4 minutes, so we're currently researching films like "shaun of the dead" and "Night of the living dead"

We've decided to do a news broadcast, which is very common for zombie films.
We've also decided to make the main character meet a girl love interest, and to be on a quest to meet its family in another part of the country.

Here are a few images of our work so far.

1/2/10

Today, me (ram) and rachel have been filming the start of our film. ITS GONE VERY WELL :)
we're very pleased with the way its going, and we're very organised with it all.

We've been using iStopmotion which is very simple to use. At the start we did have a slight problem working out how long the shots were and how many frames we needed to do. After trial and error, we soon got into the swing of it. We've shot the first 15 seconds, so still lots to go!!

Heres an example of the software we've been using.

test pieces

This is our first movie test for our istop motion film. We are really happy with how it turned out :D



This is our second movie test. For this Ram was testing the zoom. The shakiness of this inspired us to carry on like it so it would be more documentary style, a bit like cloverfield. Here is a trailer for cloverfield.



We dont know why the background is red, apparently its just the way blogger uploaded it. the original colour is white

Exciting stuff!!!!

We managed to find the natural confectionery selection on the waitrose website, so Ram went to her local waitrose and thankfully they had a huge selection. She brought two packet of bears and one dinosaur packet just in case. The bears are not as big as what we thought they would be but hopefully it won't effect our filming.
We are going to start filming today the scenes that don't need the food colouring. We will do those scenes on monday hopefully. We will be making the consistency of the food colouring thicker by mixing it with icing sugar. This hopefully look more like zombie blood. Wish us luck :D

Camera decision

We asked our tutor about the macro lens, and he advised us to use iStop motion to create our 4 minute film, as the macro is a lot better on those camera's, and so the movements are a lot smoother, this will also help the shot transitions.

Heres an example of work that Ram did in the media studies year 12 induction. Its very short, but this's an example of the hardware.

Searching for props

So, me (Ram) and Rachel went to tesco's today to try and find some gummy bears.
NO LUCK.
i also went to a different tesco previously, and still no luck.
Rachel knows of 2 more supermarkets where we'll look on friday.
If not there, then theres another sweet shop in the city centre, so that'll be our last resort.

On a happy note, we did find some red food colouring to simulate blood. we'll mix this with icing sugar to make it thicker.

Ram- cinematographer

Hello, i'm Ram, and i've taken the role of cinematographer.

I'll be taking inspiration from several films, adverts and photographers.

As we've previously shown, our main inspiration is from the "natural confectionary company" adverts, which have the similar editing, sound and camerawork we're looking for.

Steve Gainer, cinematographer for "Mysterious Skin" and "Bully" uses steady camera shots, taking advantage of wide spaces.
Heres a clip from mysterious skin to illustrate the style we're going for.


As we'll be working with sweets, we'll most likely inorporate some stop motion animation. After studying Henry Selick, who's done 4 stop motion animated films (the nightmare before christmas, james and the giant peach, coraline, and monkeybone) I've looked at the trailer for these films, and the smooth transitions is what we're looking for. Here's the trailer from james and the giant peach.



Here is another trailer from the natural confectionary company, with the similar camerawork we're looking for.
Most of our piece we'll be using macro lenses.

Film editor :p

My role in our film is to be the film editor. We will have our own say as to how our film will be structured but I will be the one who puts it together, whether its cutting parts out or adding parts in. I will be using Shaun of the dead as my inspiration as I like the fast cuts.
At 20 seconds is a clip to show this...


Hopefully I will be able to portray a similar effect in our short film. More to come............

Decision change of heart

After talking to several supermarkets, they've all come back saying we're not allowed to shoot in the supermarket.
This isn't a problem, as we have several back up ideas.

We've all talked as a group, and have decided to develop on the sweets idea, this was mainly inspired by the "natural confectionery company" adverts.

IDEAS:
- sweets are in "sweetie heaven" and focus on one sweet, that doesnt know he's dead... we'd make it quite lighthearted.

- sweets turn into zombies- shaun of the dead stylie (we could use food colouring, and bite the heads of sweets to create certain effects)

-one coloured bear sweet around another coloured bear sweet, they feel left out (again, quite lighthearted)

- dark storyline, dracula style, dark shadows etc

For all these ideas we'd need a macro lens for the camera, we're not sure if the college provide them, but if they do we'll have to get permission.

As a group, we prefer this idea, as it'll be easier to shoot, and simpler, with less problems to overcome. We'd be able to shoot during our lesson time, and outside if needed, and we wouldn't need many props or outside help, just a white background and sweets.

We're all very pleased with this idea :)

Back up ideas

As we've developed the trolley idea, we have a few extra ideas, in case that idea falls through (eg, not allowed to shoot in the supermarket, idea is too short, unable to find somwhere to shoot)

- develop on the sweets idea, similar to the "natural confectionary" adverts
-shoes (nice pair of shoes, being jealous of another pair of nicer, newer shoes, similar to toy story)
-ipods

if the trolley idea doesnt work for one reason or another, we'll develop on some of these ideas.

Development of ideas

As we've decided to go with the trolleys talking but nobody knows idea, we've come up with some scenario's we could use.

- When people cant make up their mind on what they want in the shop. the trolley can complain and shout at the customer.

-When going through an aisle, and theres not enough room- either some really fat person in the way, or another trolley in the way. trolley can complain and scream "nooo, dont go through!!"

-someone puts a packet of condoms/biscuits in their trolley, they can be sarcastic and go "ooh, do you really think you'll be needing them?" or "do your thighs really need another packet of them?"

-When people play on trolleys and jump on the end and skid down the aisle, trolley can go "weeeee!"

-When someone stands on the other end of a trolley, trolley can whine and go "heyyy, get off me fatty (etc)"

- Trolley with a wonky wheel, (elderly) can crash into another, close up of wheel.

-Trolleys talking to each other in trolley bay, when person puts trolley back, and when collecting trolley.

- when trolley is took out of bay, trolley can be gloating that they got chosen "ha, they chose me, suck on that (etc)"

-buying clothes from supermarket, trolley can mock and say "wow, classy lady, buying clothes from a supermarket"

- someone puts flowers in the trolley, trolley is allergic & sneezes, complains

Development of ideas

We've decided to develop on the "inanimate objects talking" idea.

1) The trolleys are having a domestic

2) gang rivalry between tesco & sainsburys

3) family situation (use small trolleys)

4)people using trolleys, they're alive, but nobody can hear them!

5) mean girls reanctment ("if you're from asda, why're you not green?")

We watched an advert for tesco when trolleys come to life and start talking. This inspired us to expand on that idea, and make the trolleys talk, without people knowing... what they're really thinking.

Here's the ad:

Initial ideas

So, we all thought of ideas, and this's what some of them were:

- inanimate objects talking, such as sweets, shopping trolleys, clipboards, phones, gummy sweets, toy trolls.









This advert, is pretty much what we're looking for, but our storyline will be with trolleys. This has the fast paced editing, and the same style we're looking for. We're also not going to be using any music, but emphasise the sound when it comes to movement etc.



-Story of a ghost. Girl or boy dies, doesnt realise they're dead, or plays around with the fact that they're dead, bullies enemies, helps friends

This is the trailer for the lovely bones, which inspired our second idea.
We'd do something similar, but maybe more lighthearted, and not as complex.

Hello

We are group 34.

We consist of

Ram- cinematographer
Rachel- editor
Mikayla- sound editor

We'll all collaboratively be director.

We hope you enjoy what we create :)