Starting To Film

Today in class my partners and I began filming our project. We had to change a few things from our story board because as I suspected we could not film in the student parking lot therefore we filmed in the hallway. It was difficult to film in the hallway because we couldn't control who went in and out of the hallway and so we had to wait for moments when no one was in the hallway to have every shot look the same and so that every shot made sense and so that random people don't appear from one scene to another.


This is some of what we filmed:

In this shot I am pushing the button which will send the electrical signal into Caroline's head. When I press the button we will add Diegetic button sound in the background to let the audience know clearly that the button has been pressed

we had to re-film this part of our movie because of the way the camera is facing. In all the other shots the camera is turned and in this one it isn't. This is the shot when I send the signal that implants the code into Caroline's head.

In this shot the camera was facing the right way. The movement of the camera is going to be sort of the movement of the signal, and when the camera reaches Caroline and she jumps and pulls the headphones out of her ear we are gonna insert an electrical sound to indicate that something (the program I created)  has sort of shocked her and and was installed in her head.

we couldnt use this shot because the camera wasn't focused on both the button and Caroline so the audience cant clearly tell whats happening. Also my hair messed up the over the shoulder shot.

In this shot Caroline messed up the acting and so therefore we couldn't use it. It was really funny when one of us messed up but it was also very agitating. Acting was also very difficult throughout filming since none of us have any prior acting experience and we couldn't hire someone that did. I now understand how hard it is to actually make a full length movie and how hard it is to work with inexperienced or bad actors. 

We couldn't use this shot because we forgot to notify Caroline to move once the camera reached a certain position so the whole scene was ruined. It can be very hard to get everything just right.

Over all we did get all the shots we needed to get in school and now we will finish the filming over the weekend and start the editing on Monday.

Screencast attempt

So I got back from my trip over spring break today and as soon as I got home I was gonna try to download a program to try out the screen cast but I found out that my dog had knocked over my laptop from my table and ruined the screen so I can't tell if anything works properly. I'm going to try and fix the screen so that I can actually tell what I'm doing on my computer but until then I can't try the screen cast. I'm worried that the audience won't be able to see the credits from my programming. I really wanted to incorporate the credits in my code since the movie is about being hacked. The credits being in my code would sort of foreshadow to the audience that this movie is abou hacking and something with computers which would help them understand our opening. Until I fix my lap top I'm going to try and think of other ways to show our credits and still foreshadow the idea of hacking and computers.

Screencast

I researched different programs for screen casting and I found that the best one to use is a program named sScreenCastOMatic. I haven't been able to test it out because I don't currently have my laptop. When I get home I will download the program and make sure that the audience can clearly see the credits. I was also thinking about how we won't be able to film in the school parking lot because security won't let us film there. Instead of having the scene where I press the button and caroline gets like a shock being in the school parking lot I think we are just gonna have it either in the courtyard of our school or maybe walking in the hallways. However controlling our surroundings in the courtyard or hallways is going to be difficult since we are filming during school hours and it might be difficult to get the right shots in the right angles. But the added kids will probably make the shot more realistic.

It's been difficult trying to get together since everyone's traveling but I think since we are using the school in our film we are just going to film everything next week and then edit the week after.

Story Board

I created a story board for our movie. I'm a little worried about timing because I think we probably are going have to cut back on some shots because we are over two minutes. We could possibly fit it if we have the credits go by fast.  Our last shot is a fade to black and then the title of our movie is typed but I'm not sure what the title is yet because my group hasn't been able to meet up over break. 

I created the storyboard for us to be able to have a sort of foundation for our opening and know exactly what we are gonna film and what shots we have to take. We also have to figure out how to do a screen cast but I'm pretty sure that's just downloading a program. Once we download the program we can test it out and see if we the audience is clearly able to see the credits from my programming. 

This is our story board:

 
 
 

Hacked

This is how the original contacts would have looked like. The neon blue contacts really makes her look a lot more scary and will enhance the shot and make it look more realistic.

We need to also understand how to make credits and where to put them in.

I'm gonna be playing the girl who codes. I'm thinking we will open up with a screen cast of me writing code and in that code it will have the credits and the camera will zoom in on the output of my code which will be the credits. 

We also need to come up with a name for the movie. In order to decide on how to name the movie I went to Chris jones blog to get tips on how to name the movie:

Tips on how to name a movie:

- it's a first impression so make it good 

- the shorter the better

- the title should hint at the genre 

- the title should infer the central conflict 

- the title should reflect the story 

Some ideas for the title are: 

- Hacked

- neuro hack

- controlled 

- take over

- the hacking 

Contact Chaos

We decided that in order to show that the girls brain has been hacked we would use colored contacts.we were going to use contacts that I had previously owned for Halloween however I found those today and they were ripped in half so we can't use those anymore and we are going to have to go shopping for new ones. Caroline will be playing the role of the girl whose brain gets hacked and she naturally has brown eyes so we were thinking we were going to get contacts that may be where like a white or neon color to sort of looks scary and give it her more of a killer vibe.

These are some of the contacts we were thinking of:

 

 It might be difficult to wear colored contacts so we will make sure that the ones that we get are the most comfortable for Caroline. Caroline having the creepy eyes will also let the viewer know that she is being controlled and that whatever she is doing is not being done by her. 

The group is meeting up soon to create a storyboard and begin filming our project.

 

WE FINALLY HAVE A STORY

I met up with other group members once more and have finally decided on a story/genre.

Our genre is a mix between thriller/horror and our story is gonna be the story of the typical popular girl who wears a lot of makeup and doesn't look smart but in reality is a genius, hardcore hacker and neuroscience expert who has discovered how to write a program that can be used for mind control.  When the popular girl figures out she has the power of mind control she decides to use it to her advantage and use the mind control to get revenge on anyone who has ever done her wrong. Through research she discovered she could send a signal to a cellphone which would travel through that persons headphones and implant code in her brain allowing for mind control. The person that will be controlled is her ex best friend who slept with her boyfriend and ended up dating him. she uses her ex best friend to kill her ex boyfriend. She wants her boyfriend to experience getting killed by his own girlfriend in order for him to feel the betrayal she felt.

My group came up with the idea of hacking because I am super interested in computer science and I know how to code . We came up with the idea of the popular girl who no one thinks is smart being the mastermind because when I was younger and much more stupid I would go on a website called Omegle where you would be connected with random strangers from around the world. The website was supposed to be completely anonymous and no one who you talked to is supposed to be able to know where you are or any other personal information. So basically it is a website to meet and video chat with random people around the world.  Computer science has always interested me and so I figured out that there was a way that I could find the ip address of the person I was talking to and with the ip address I could trace down their location. Once I realized I could get that information and after I checked that it was legal to get that information I decide to prank some people on Omegle. One guy that I pranked was in complete shock that I was able to track down his location and could not believe that a girl who looked like me (I don't look exactly like the cliche popular girl but I do often wear makeup and I do not look like the typical computer science geek) was able to track down his location. Since he was in such shock I though making the popular girl the hardcore hacker would be perfect since no one would expect her to be the master mind behind everything.  We decided that the girl who the popular girl takes advantage of should be the ex best friend since  most people in our target audience (15-25) can relate to having friendship troubles.

Our credits are going to be displayed through the code that the girl writes so for example a credit could look like this:

I am going to start creating a story board to sort of organize our ideas and start creating the opening to our movie. The story board is going to help us to understand our vision more clearly and be able to decide how we want to shoot (angles, composition, camera placemen, etc)  every part of our opening.

Meeting With Other Groups

Currently in the media center of my school, talking with people in a different group assigned with the same project to get feed back. My group was not sure whether or not we are going in the thriller direction or horror direction. Some suggestions we received were:

- watch many thriller films 

- take notes on what you like about each film and why you like it.

- understand the whole concept before trying to come up with intro idea

- a horror can be considered a thriller so it can be a blend of the two

Ideas we came up with:

-start with black screen, hear heart beat and pacing/running, lack of sight makes audience want to know what's going on and therefore want to continue watching the film

I'm not sure if we should start with action to create the suspense or begin with an introduction and hint at the conflict in the intro. Do we start with a black screen and a sound of a heart beat to immediatly get the audience hooked like in the intro to the movie scream or begin with an introduction and hint at the conflict but don't go into it.

We need to elaborate on our idea and come up with an entire story to better understand how to create our intro. 

Discovering Our Genre

Within my group we have each decided to research one genre and then together come up with a conclusion on which genre we would like our film to be. The genre that I will be researching is thriller. In order to understand fully what the thriller genre consists of I turned to an article on The Script Lab. 

Key elements in a Thriller:

• The genre is based heavily off anticipation and suspense
• The aim of a thriller is to always have their audience on the edge of their seats
• The Protagonist is usually set against a problem (an escape, mystery, or mission).
• focuses on emphasizing danger that protagonist is in
• the tension is built throughout the film and leads to a highly stressful climax

The thriller genre has many sub genres such as:

• action thriller (Die Hard, Kill Bill)
• crime thriller (The Usual Suspects, The Fugitive)
• psychological thriller (Memento, Taxi Driver)

Example of a well made thriller:

Dial M for Murder  (1954) (Alfred Hitchcock)

(trailer for movie, not opening)

The opening for this movie is really successful because Hitchcock managed to establish a conflict through minimal shots and dialogue. Hitchcock did not go the ordinary route to introducing a conflict and instead used only minimal shots and specific actions to create contrast and develop the conflict of the story.

After our research on all the genres, our group has narrowed our choices down to Thriller, or horror. We narrowed it down to these options because they are the genres we are the most comfortable creating content for. Since many of us enjoy watching horror and thriller films, researching and understanding how to create a successful opening for these genres will be more enjoyable and likely produce better content than doing a film opening in a genre none of us like.

Where Do I Start???

Task: In a group of 4 people, create a unique two minute film opening utilizing all prior knowledge.

To get myself organized and started I have come up with two questions. I have come up with these two questions because the answer to them will help me understand what my task is and how to successfully complete it.

Starting Questions:

1) what makes a film opening successful?
2) what is an example of a well made film opening and what makes it well made?

Answers:

1) 

In order to answer my first question, I turned to an article on What Culture that discussed the importance of film openings. From the article I gathered that "The most important thing that the opening of a film must accomplish is to establish a tone so that the audience fall into the same mood as the film they are watching " , "Usually the most successful film openings bring a well developed sense of intrigue that will leave you settled into your seat desperate to know more about the story and the characters that are going to occupy your time for the next one and a half to two hours", and that the film opening is very dependent on the genre of the film.

My group has not yet decided what genre we would like to make our film opening, however regardless of what genre we decide I now understand that it is imperative to establish tone and intrigue the audience. Once we decide on the genre we now know to start thinking about what tone we would like to establish based on our genre, how we will establish it, and also how we will Intrigue the audience. 

2) 

Luckily, the article I used to answer my first question also had the answer to my second question.

An example of a successful film opening is: 

 The Shining (1980)

This film opening was successful because it establishes mood/tone without showing a single character. It establishes mood through a series of different shots such as the opening one which is a pan through a lake that establishes a sense of disorientation. Not only does it use a variety of shots it also includes foreshadowing which is key when attempting to intrigue the audience and different sound elements which can help establish mood as well. The film opening also works very well to establish the genre of the film. All of the sound, technical, and visual elements help to establish the mood necessary for a horror film