19.03.2015 CONSTRUCTION: FILMING FINAL BASEMENT SCENES

This is a GIF of Agatha on roller skates

Today we completed filming the final basement scenes for our film opening, The Unhinging. All members of our film opening group congregated at Agatha' house, our chosen location for the basement scenes. 

Below are some videos I recorded of the process of filming the final basement scenes. I uploaded these onto my film openings Instagram. These videos were also uploaded on my film openings Twitter page creating continuity between the films social media websites, resulting in an 'inter web' of  The Unhinging related information. This creates a buzz with our film openings followers. 

This is me filming Demi running across the gravel of 'Jacks' house

This is a video showing the basement set. It also shows the position of the camera at the bottom of the stairs leading the basement. Just after this we filmed a close up shot of Demi, who plays India, walking up the stairs showing the back of ankles and anxious, hesitant foot steps. 

This is a video showing Agatha, who filmed India escaping from the basement, filming on her roller skates. Due to forgetting the filming dolly in Media Studies, we decided to create an equally, efficient and smooth tracking shot of Demi escaping from the basement and through the hall towards the front door to escape, we needed equipment with wheels. I remembered that Agatha had some roller skates and we thought it would equally as successful to allow Agatha to film using her roller skates creating a smooth, tracking shot. A useful point we realised using roller skates, meant that we could hand hold the camera on the tripod whilst picking up pace on the roller skates; successfully quickly finishing filming this shot in a less than 5 takes. 

This is a video showing 'behind the scenes' footage of the cast and crew of The Unhinging. I uploaded  this video onto Instagram with the hashtags '#behindthescenes' and '#theunhingingmovie'. Instagram is a recently new app involving hashtags (also used by Twitter) that distributors can use on the 'notes page' when feeding information on the Instagram feeds. Using hashtags will niche the audiences findings making the search for my film more accurate - only pictures, promotional post and advertisements will be found under the official hashtag or fan made hashtags such as '#theunhinging' '#theunhingingmovie'. Hashtags can also apply to actors, directors or anyone associated with the film such as '#katebradford' or '#demicollins' - this makes it easier for my target audience to reach information relating to the film. 

Above, I have also made a SlideShare of the stages of filming of the final basement scenes with annotation describing the choices we made and reasons why we made them. 

17.03.2015 CONSTRUCTION: COMPLETING IDENT

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Today, I completed the final stages of my film opening, The Unhinging, production company - Razzle Dazzle Productions ident. 

Above I completed a Calaméo presentation on the final stages of completing my production company ident. Calaméo is a free online website specialising in editing and making presentations that can be uploaded onto social media websites such as Facebook or Twitter as well as uploaded onto Blogger with an embed code. This allows your presentation to be viewed on your blog by copying the embed link onto the HTML page before publishing your post. Calaméo is useful as it is free, quick to use and edit presentations on. 

13.03.2015 CONSTRUCTION: MAKING A GIF

In my free time I have experimented with making GIFs. A GIF is a bitmap image format - GIF is the acronym for The Graphics Interchange Format. In simpler words, a GIF is a selection of images (or a video) taken of a movement or action, such as smiling or walking, and added together to create a short video image. This 'video' is saved as an image therefore it can be saved as a JPEG file.  You simply upload a selection of images, adding text, filters or rotation if you choose. Thereafter you can 'generate' the image creating a GIF file.

Here are the JPEG files I used to make my GIF

To start practising, I simply made a GIF of me typing on my key board, 'how to make a gif'. There is a huge selection of websites available on the internet for you to make a GIF, I chose to use the website, Imgflip. I also added a video of Agatha, from a previous post, playing the operator, taking an emergency call from India in the woods.

I found this new technology extremely useful in making a unique and fun 'mini presentation' of images or a video I have recorded. Even though other new technologies I found, including Photosnack and Prezi, are useful at making long, in depth presentations presented with interesting edits; the making of a GIF is intended to be a short 'snip-it' of action. Therefore I can upload a GIF onto my film opening and my personal social media sites such as Twitter or Instagram; this means that I can present a GIF in a diverse way, on my blog for example or quickly uploaded onto Instagram.

I intend to make use of the GIF image format in future posts on my blog and my social media websites. 

12.03.2015 CONSTRUCTION: FILMING CONTINUED BASEMENT SCENES

We use this picture as a guideline - this collage is taken from a previous blog post of mine

I edited this photo of Agatha on PicMonkey applying make up onto Demi, who plays India our main protagonist. She applied make up on areas such as her face including her eyes, cheek bones, brow line and jaw line to create a bruising effect as well as a slash of fake blood on her cheek bones. To maintain continuity, the make up has to be exactly the same every time we film, so we use the picture above as a guideline when applying make up. I have also collected SnapChats I have recorded on SnapChat of the process we went through before we started filming. I have amalgamated this footage together on iMovie, making it into a short film. I also included a problem that occurred whilst filming - finding that a family of frogs living in Agatha's basement, spending too long setting up the set and applying make up on Demi therefore causing a disruption to filming. As this problem caused a delay to our filming, we decided that we will continue filming in the next double lesson of Media Studies. Popular YouTuber Casey Neistat's SnapChat Stories were the inspiration behind my SnapChat story of filming in Agatha's basement. I've watched many of his SnapChat stories on YouTube as well as many of his videos on his YouTube channel, including Make It Count and The Surprise in South Africa by Casey Neistat and was inspired to make my own SnapChat video. I intend to make more of these videos as I continue filming and editing my film opening.

Me filming Demi in the basement

Me filming Demi in the basement

Uploading footage into iMovie

Adding transitions to the footage

Before exporting, I made sure the film fluid to be viewed easily

12.03.2015 CONSTRUCTION: FILMING CONTINUED FORREST SCENES

Today we finished filming the final scenes of India, our main protagonist, running through the woods, trying to escape her kidnapper, Jack. Due to great dry, sunny weather and not wasting time, for example applying make up, spending too long collecting the equipment and setting up; filming was overall a success. Agatha and I were in charge of filming the final forrest scenes. I completed shots such as: 

• close up shots of India (played by Demi) exhaustedly gasping for air bending down on her knees catching her breath
• tracking shots of India running past the camera creating a sense of depth and mass to forrest as she running frantically through the clearings of trees for an exit
• extreme close up shots of Demi's lips, visible showing her teeth, gasping for air emphasising that she was becoming exhausted, tired and mad to be free
• close up panning (360 degree) shots of the forrest, trees and sky to emphasise the grand size of the forrest and the mentality of India's panic

This is me filming Demi in the forrest

I made these collages of photos from the shoot using PicMonkey . PicMonkey is useful as I can create fun, interesting and visual attractive collages showing a vast amount of pictures saved as one image. I can also edit and add filters onto a selection of photographs meaning I can upload them onto my social media websites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter; therefore allowing me to continuity of my blog photos and information about my film opening, The Unhinging. 

10.03.2015 CONSTRUCTION: REFILMING NEWS REPORTER SCENE

Today we decided to re-film the news reporter scene outside the school gates. When we previously decided to film it was too windy therefore making the voice unclear and the focus on the camera blurry as the tripod kept on moving. I checked the weather on my Iphone regularly the night before and this morning for any changes in the weather such as wind or rain.

Sophie and I play the two news reporters reporting on the kidnapping of India, the main protagonist of our film opening, describing what she was last wearing before she went missing, a short description of what the police think was the last location she was last seen; ultimatly urging anybody who may know any information regarding Indias location to contact the police. Our filming was successful as the weather was warm and dry allowing us to concerntrate on the filming. Agatha held the cue cards on the right side of camera allowing us to look at them for a propt on our words. We  managed to complete the filming of this scene in 3 takes. 

07.03.2015 PLANNING: TRELLO UPDATE