Enjoy.

In regards to the editing posts below, the following advancements have been acheived.

Whatever time was left out of the five minutes I had been given to use, I placed the credits in. Although this makes it sound like the credits are long, they really only last around 15 seconds, which still caused me to speed up the credits as the time was a little constraining. At the start of these, I decided to throw in a few ‘animated credits’ like most modern action/sci-fi (EDIT LATER)

Other than that, not much has been planned. I have yet to write the review or even begin to design it, but I am positive I will be able to get it done before the deadline. This, among other things such as my posters and actual film, are yet to be completed.

Speaking of my other tasks, progress has been slightly slow. I have yet to retrieve the glowing blue effect from royaltyfreestockfootage.com that I need to use as the telekinetic VFX, and little can be done before I have it. Furthermore, editing that in is likely to take the longest time out of all of the things I have done to the film, or at least I anticipate it to be as such. I need to find and retrieve that effect fast….
As for my poster, the design may be complete, but little else has been done. I plan to make the basic design layout ASAP and import the photos I require whenever I obtain them (which I will also need to get ASAP,  however it is difficult to catch my actors when they are free).

Today I will focus on getting the base layouts complete for both my film review and my poster. While not complete, it will certainly help ease the time pressure.

Live Long and Prosper.

As for this post, I’ll be talking to you about the poster I’ve been designing.

Inspiration came from two particular posters I’d seen on the back of Empire Magazines, the first of which being HellBoy 2: The Golden Army.

HellBoy 2 Poster

Note how the poster has one strong image above a clear-to-see, large title. The caption is at the top of the poster, which is normally how people read (top to bottom) so, although the image is the first thing you see, the caption is most likely the thing you’ll read first. Underneath the image, the main title, Hellboy II, is much larger than the subtitle and is in a clear font, yet a unique and almost symbolic one to the film itself. All short print information, as seen on most film posters, is on the bottom of the poster and the release date for cinemas is made much clearer than the rest of the text. The size of the text appears to be in order of what is most important to what is least important in terms of the information.
The way I plan to emulate this particular design is by using the structure of the poster, the large image atop the title and other information.

Posters from the film ‘The Dark Knight’ have also intrigued me greatly.

What I particularly like with these posters is how they portray both charatcers, the hero and the villain, as being very similar. If we didn’t instinctively know that the Joker was evil and the Batman was good, would we assume they were both the heroes or both the villains? There are some obvious connotations in their facial expressions and the objects that connote otherwise, but the point still stands – they appear to be related to each other in a strong way. That, and I love how they’ve got their faces so prominent using his contrast against a black background.

I now plan to make two posters, following a very similar design to these. Note, however, that they do not contain the traditional small print that normally comes with film posters. Therefore, by combining this design with that of the Hellboy 2 design, I’ll create two posters using the layout of Hellboy 2 whilst using shots of my two main characters’ faces as the large, prominent images. My protagonist and antagonist are merely two sides of the same coin and this should be reflected in a similar way to the Dark Knight posters above.

One other poster I have been looking into is the one for the film Gomorrah. Although the genre of film may be very different, I like the use of smaller images within the poster to reveal elements of a complex story to, hopefully, make it slightly easier for the audience to follow. As my plot is also a complex one, I intend to use these smaller images in my design.

So, using a combination of these three posters, I have come up with my design, shown below. It incorporates the large central image from Hellboy II, the emphasis on the faces of my main characters from The Dark Knight and the smaller images from Gomorrah. I intend to create two of these posters, one for my hero, and one for my villain.

(INSERT HERE)

Back onto the actual creation of the score, however, it appears to be going in a similar fashion to my film. I seem to be editing together a few bits and pieces and merging them together, rather than working from the beginning to the end. I particularly enjoy the build-up towards the credits, which I created first, which involve a very quick ‘charge up’ before breaking into a techno-rhythm throughout the credits sequence.
My entire score is currently in the genre of ‘techno’, or at least it has a very sci-fi feel to it. Although the initial 30 seconds are an obvious classical bass track, straight afterwards it cuts into synth sounds and various technological sci-fi noises, such as warp-drive startup or electrical interference, which just gives the overall feel of ‘science fiction’ that I wanted the score to give the audience. Somehow I managed to get a smooth transition into a lightly more sinister techno-rhythm once my Protagonist mentions that things have gone wrong with the world, which I find suits the feel of that particular section, focussing on Redgrave, rather well.
After the loud static sound upon Redgrave shooting the surveillance camera, the instruments change and the techno sounds are no longer there. Instead I’ve placed a few guitar riffs which seem to follow on from the tone of the previous seciton of music very well. However, to link back to the fact that this is definitely a sci-fi film, I’ve included some morse code transfer to link to technology, and thus science. At the end of this section, when we arrive in the wooded location, there is a boom sound that effectively ends the tone of the music, allowing me to freely change the instruments and feel of the sound whilst only really having to worry about if it fits in with the current film sequence rather than if it follows on from the score well. I have yet to edit further, but at some point I realise I will have to link the ending credits piece with this slowly progressing score, of which I hope will be easy.

As for my next steps, I’ve gained some further help from my colleague, Stephen Rutt, who has listened to my score whilst looking at the footage. Whilst I still left the sound of the footage in, I asked Stephen to particularly focus on the score involved and pick out sections where it either felt right or felt wrong when combined with the edited footage, and any suggestions he had regarding this or any other issues. In particular, his dislike of several of the sci-fi sound effects came from them being too loud and over-prominent, rather than something subtle that would simply be regarded as another part of the score. That seems to be the only trouble with it, although he has picked up on a few things to do with the footage as well. Apparently, the shots of Animus ‘gearing up’ are too long, and need to be shortened to become ‘snappier’, and perhaps a slightly longer time should be left for the ‘timeshift’ between the Dr’s discovery and Animus’s capture.

These are all issues I will address and I shall continue with the score whenever possible.

For the ‘CCTV’ footage, I’ve made it black and white with slight noise so people can recognise it as footage similar to Animus’s video log, but as most actual CCTV footage is in black and white this effect makes it accurate to the real thing. For the flashback sequences I found an interesting effect which made the edges of the footage become ‘light rays’ and have the main footage glow slightly, which I messed around with through keyframing to act as a unique transition into and out of the flashback shots. Criticism I received on this was from Stephen Rutt, who said that it was too flashy, so I toned it down a little bit, but he also recommended I add a sepia effect to make it appear more ‘in the past’, which I did and I now approve of.

I’ve also added a slightly fuzzy noise effect to the John Duhadhi scenes, again to make it seem more ‘self-filmed’. I further intend to add some text to the corner of the shot detailing the time and date of the footage, however this proves to be difficult as every time I make a change to my footage it needs to render again, and most of my shots already take a long time to do this. One effect that was relatively easy to achieve was the binocular outlines of the ‘binocular’ shot, hence its name. I created them in Photoshop using black and white colours only, and then imported them into Final Cut as a PNG image file, layering it over the top of the footage and using a Chroma Keyer to get rid of the white, leaving just the black outlines over the top of the shot. It looks great, and it works, so I’m happy with it!

The final and most notable of my visual effects is the Satellite Tracking sequence. As seen in many ‘spy’ films, Satellites often track their agents and show a sort of ‘zooming in’ sequence revealing their location. I decided to do something very similar in my film, revealing the location of Redgrave. I used the same method of importing the still images I received from Flash Earth into Final Cut, but then I required the classic ‘white box’ zoom system that the films always seem to use (using a white box that gradually decraeses in size to highlight a specific area of the image, zooming in on that location and proceeding the highlight the next location until you reach the very specific birds-eye-view image you are looking for). I simply took my binocular template and inverted the colours, removing the central white pieces leaving only a white outline and getting rid of the black center through, again, Chroma Keyer. From there it was just a little bit of keyframing with the scale of the images and the sequence is finished! It looks great and I’m very happy with it, particularly since I added a small edit to the final image to make it flash with Redgraves location.

This is all that’s come to be so far, but there’s a lot more in store for the visual effects in this film.

Still can’t wait to see AVATAR over the Christmas holidays.
Peace Out – Ross

One thing I had half expected was a few changes to my film. Because of the change of location, if I stuck strictly to my storyboard I would have ended up with lots of time to spare. Thankfully, my actors had provided me with a few extra, unexpected shots that I could use to fill the time gap. Krit’s acting as John Duhadhi had taken an interesting turn and I had ended up with a nice long opening shot describing the main focus of my film – the drug Antirequitox (credit goes to the Random Drug Name Generator for that one). It provided me with a great base to my film, and some excellent places to put my titles in, managing to take up half a minute of the film! This was much more than I originally expected the title sequence to take, but now I thank it for that.
The second part to have given me extra time was an extended CCTV-like shot of Redgrave (Alex Linge) walking through a corridor and shooting the camera at the end of the shot. This is one shot I originally had no intention of shooting at all, and it was a spontaneous idea I had whilst out with the camera shooting the death of the guard (Steve Rutt) scene, and again this turned out to be visually interesting and a lengthier shot than the original, so I was happy to have it. As for the rest of the time I had to make up, I simply extended a few shots and changed a few things around. Lots of little things make a big difference.

So, with my timing issue sorted and armed with a computer and a god knowledge of editing, I began to embark on my adventure into the world of getting this thing DONE.

A lot of the issues came before I could actually film. I was struggling to get actors to play the main roles, as I required that they be free on a Saturday so that I could film at the Firework Factory location. Many I approached were interested, but couldn’t give up this important piece of time. Eventually, on the Wednesday before the deadline (the monday after) I found actors for each of my main roles – Alex Shannon plays the part of Animus, Alex Linge plays an excellent Joseph Redgrave and Krit Dwivedi was the perfect choice in the role of Dr. John Duhadhi. That was a LOT of stress off my shoulders.

On the Wednesday itself, I finished filming all of the voiceover scenes  in the small room in the Media block, which covered a large chunk of the footage I required. Shannon’s voice was a little stale at first, slightly monotonal, even, but eventually he got into the character and began to use a bit of colour and emotion in both his actions and his voice. Thursday involved filming the scenes involving Redgrave’s escape from the holding facility and the death of the security guard (played by Stephen Rutt), along with getting re-do’s of some of the voiceover scenes Shannon wasn’t happy with. During the Redgrave scenes, I was inspired to change some of the scene that I had planned to film in favour of a CCTV setup that would apply more ‘realism’ to my film, particularly in the shot where Linge shoots the camera in the hall – I really like that shot! My timing my be a little different from the animatic because of it, but this was bound to happen anyway as a lot of the voice-over scenes were shorter than I imagined.

Friday involved the filming of John Duhadhi’s scenes, taken in a Chemistry Lab in my  school. Thanks to Krit’s strong connections with the Chemistry department, I was able to get all the props and costume that I needed. These shots went very well, but upon filming the ‘interview’ shot, Krit, and my friend Ben Turner, had an interesting idea. We used the interactive whiteboard to present pictures and images behind Krit, as if it was him filming himself for future reference to his studies. He took the part into his own at that point, and went into much more depth about Antirequitox than  I had even thought of. I definitely plan to use that long shot throughout the entire opening sequence, I think it’s amazing work done by Krit.

Saturday… the big day. I had organised both Alex’s to get to my house for around 11am so we could leave for Chedburgh at around 12 after I had gotten the costume ready and taken the shots I required in the garage. I did require extras in some of these scenes, but no-one else could spare the time. THANKFULLY, I called an old friend from Middle School who lives in Chedburgh and he was more than happy to play the part I needed, and I used myself as another extra. Due to this change, I realised I would have to take out some of the shots I had planned to film, but my project was already changing rapidly anyway, so I just let it happen.
Then, the biggest blow of all happened.
It turned out that the Firework Factory I had planned to use had been closed off very recently, and work had begun to be done on changing it into a small housing estate. I was incredibly gutted. I had semi-planned for something like this to happen, but I never expected it to actually occur. Thankfully, my old friend Matt Costello-Clarke had an idea. There was another location nearby that could serve the same purpose as the firework factory, an old abandoned tower just outside of the town. Anything was better than nothing at this point, so we drove out there to take a look.

It was a really, really odd experience.

In the middle of no-where, hidden by trees and bushes, stood a small tower-like structure that seemed to have been built many many years prior. It was a location perfect for any horror film, it appeared very religious in nature, almost like a sort of sacrificial site. It kind of gave me the creeps to be honest, but a place with ambience such as this was definitely worthy of shooting in.
Obviously, this completely screwed up my storyboard. A change of location as heavy as this was bound to. However, I was still able to salvage many of the shots if I bodged them a bit here and there, changed a few angles, some timings, so I was able to save my film from completely and utter destruction at the hands of fate itself. I thank all those involved for being patient with me in how cold it was out there, they all did a great job.

Finally, it was monday, when I had realised I required a few shots I hadn’t filmed yet. Bugger. Thankfully there were only 4 I needed, and they were incredibly easy to film within around half an hour. Deadline met. I uploaded all my footage onto the Macs ready for editing, and finally it was over.
The footage had been captured, and I hadn’t died in the process.

Win.

ANIMUS – SUBJECT 42

Full name: Not revealed
Age: 18
Animus was once a sixth form student on his way to university to study aircraft mechanics. A particularly intelligent guy, he was liked by many people and they all said he showed a lot of promise in his work. In fact, he had just gained an offer from his first choice university when he was asked to test out Antirequitox. Naturally, like  most people his age, he was attracted to the offer by the promises of greater mind potential and a lot of money on the side.
Upon taking Antirequitox, Animus showed the classic signs of potential brain increase. Faster thought processes, quicker reaction speeds, and ofcourse, minor craziness. However, unlike most of his age group, Animus was one of the very few who seemed to be able to handle the capacity increase without going insane. As such, researchers got excited, and decided to cut him off from the rest of society whilst they continued to experiment on him.
Because of this, he quickly began to resent the institution that had offered him these abilities, and as soon as the telekinesis began to manifest he made a decision – he would stop the madness from spreading, kill all those who intended it to spread, and destroy the last of the Antirequitox, otherwise he would have nothing to come back to once he left the facility.
Due to his high intelligence level and extensive knowledge of how mechanics work, his telekinetic potential is well above average. 

JOSEPH REDGRAVE – SUBJECT 7

Full name: Joseph David Redgrave
Age: 18
Similarly to Animus, Joseph was a high-end college student in a computing course. Top of his class and respected by all, it was often said there was nothing he couldn’t do with a computer. Once approached with Antirequitox, he took up the offer because he was interested in seeing if he could further computer technology beyond anyone’s imagination. Unfortunately, Joseph was one of the failed test subjects.
His mind was affected more than the average subject, having gone completely insane within the first 24 hours of testing. Knowledge was scrambled in his mind to the point of which he didn’t know what his goal in life was. Eventually he formed an idea based on many sci-fi films he’d seen. He’d further technology by making it all his, through whatever means necessary. An almost childish but dangerous idea, Redgrave used his incredible Telekinetic potential to escape from the labs and spread Antirequitox to others, using them as lackeys in his plans to dominate the world.
His extremely active imagination and good technical knowledge make him a dangerous telekinesis user. 

DR. JOHN DUHADHI

Full Name: As above
Age: 21
A student at the University of Cambridge, he discovered the formula for Antirequitox, a biologically engineered virus that would cause no harm to the human body, but would increase neuron capability, frontal lobe activity and many other benefits to the human mind. Naturally, high-end researches from all reaches of the globe were interested in his discovery, and approached him with plans to conduct tests to see what the short term and long term effects of the drug would be. He never meant any ill-will through the drug, and was simply looking at ways to further mankind, much like Joseph.
Upon seeing the pain the results of his tests caused, John couldn’t stand to believe that he had created such a monstrous thing. He left Cambridge University and cut all ties with the researchers that funded him, and hasn’t been heard of since then. Many people still search for him, as it is believed only he can improve the formula to serve the corrupt needs of the government. Others look for him because they believe he’s the only one with any form of cure.
It is, as of yet, unknown as to whether John has tested his own project on himself.

I had decided that my main character was driven by a want to see his girlfriend again, but Steve seriously thought it was much too overused and that I should give him some other means to drive him forward. Thankfully, it was only one shot that needed to be changed, so I decided that ‘Animus’ wanted to have something to come back to in the world once all the testing and experimenting was over, and that he knew he had to fight to achieve this.

Anyway, here’s the script in Microsoft Word form. Hopefully it should work with all versions, if not please leave a comment and I will try to solve the problem.

Word 2007: Elan Vital

I began by deciding that I should give the name a meaning that was associated with my film – something about the mind, conspiracy, being trapped, anything that associated itself with the core values in the plot. The problem came when I wanted the name to also be unique and a bit strange. The words were easy to find, but none of them seemed to work all that well.

Thankfully, thesaurus.com and Stephen Rutt/friend and terminal word freak can help me out there.

Armed with a dictionary-in-a-box and a website with word recommendations, I took myself over the top to fight the battle of giving this piece of art a name. After deciding to focus the name on the mind, Steve and I began looking for interesting words with interesting meanings. We began looking up words like ‘consciousness’, ‘brain’ and various others, and eventually we stumbled across something quite interesting.

Élan Vital. Essentially, it means ‘Vital Force’. Seeing as how the mind is vital to human survival and it can now create a telekinetic force, I wondered about how we’d stumbled across something so unusual, but so perfect. Even so, something still felt missing… so we carried on in our quest, eventually coming to another very likeable word – Animus.
Animus means ‘a feeling of ill-will arousing hostility’. The plot is themed almost entirely on the ill-will of the scientists experimenting on young people and the ill-will of those affected by extreme changes to their mind, often resulting in violence. Again, such a perfect description in a strange word.

Élan Vital: Animus. I gave the name structure that included Animus as a subtitle, indicating that this could be the first part of many films to come, something which I may pursue in later life.