Final Major Project - Journal

Moving Image Journal

Jason Lee Darlow

Final Major Project - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2k7M27ffJo

Final Idea My Final Major Project for Moving Image will be based on ghosts. I am glad that the brief is very open because it has allowed me to explore many different genres and ideas. The video I aim to create will be somewhere between two to six minutes in duration rather than the maximum that is twenty minutes. I hope to achieve a video of high quality and to a near professional standard so that I can proudly place it into my portfolio of work.

Final Idea By keeping the video below six minutes will allow me to manage my time better, in the sense that I will be able to concentrate on the three stages (pre-production, production, post-production) much more equally rather than all my thoughts going into the pre-production process. My main focus will be on quality rather than quantity, so I will be sure to spend a lot of time in production and post-production to make sure that the video looks as I had intended.

Original Idea As I had mentioned previously, there is no limitations to this project in most aspects. This can sometimes be more difficult because it allows so many choices of ideas and choosing one can be hard. I have a bad habit of being overly ambitious on all my projects, so on this occasion I will do my best to create a video at my current skill level rather than challenging myself as I would usually do, this will save me much more time because I won’t be spending days trolling the net for tutorials on new techniques, software and plugins.

Original Idea I have had several ideas over the past few days/week, one of which was to create a zombie film. This idea was way too cliché and my friend who is studying theatrical make-up may have not been available for the shoots on particular days because she is studying in York, this may have formed into a major problem so I decided against it.

Original Idea My second idea was to create a film similar to the YouTube phenomenon by producer Fede Alvarez and director Sam Raimi. The film is called ‘Ataque de Panico!’ which translates to Panic Attack! The video features giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The short film can be seen here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk. I decided against this because I felt that it was rather ambitious and would make it difficult to complete within the time frame I had.

Original Idea My third idea was to create a short film on a person who was born blind, but still able to see colour when dreaming. This idea came to me when watching The Matrix and hearing about the theory of dualism, meaning the mind and body being separate substances. The film would explore the possibility of after-life, meaning the person would have been born blind which consequently meant he hadn’t ever seen the colours of the world, but dreamt in colour because his soul came from his previous body that weren’t blind.

Original Idea The concept I felt was good, but would have to be very detailed and carefully planned for audiences to understand and be able to follow the idea of dualism. With that in mind I have decided I will not make this film for my Final Major Project. I will however create an independent film once I finish University using this concept, as I will have more time and able to work with a team.

Original Idea The idea I have chosen to use for my Final Major Project will be based on ghosts in a haunted/derelict house or warehouse. I won’t be telling a story as such; rather using the camera to appear in different rooms and using special effects in post-production place ghosts in the scene and colour correct the footage for a scarier effect. I have contacts with people who have access to professional green screen rooms so I will get in touch with them and organize a time and date I can use the studio and equipment they have. I will also contact my friend in York who is the theatrical make-up artist to see if she is able to come down and apply the make-up effects. As I mentioned earlier the final video would be between three to six minutes long, I will explore different film locations and create a picture gallery so I can look back and choose the most appropriate location.

Inspirations Zombie film The video has some good camera shots, effects and colour correction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMuM7eJ1Zk Created by: LoneSoldierFilms Again I like the camera angles and effects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvrHl49THUQ Create by: Vezari Studios

Inspirations Apocalyptic The short film has an interesting story, the camera angles r good and the video quality is high. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA7mkrd0Wik Created by: LoneSoldierFilms The short film has won awards and the producer has been offered a job by Hollywood studios, its not surprising since the film is of such high quality and brilliance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk Created by: MurdocFilms

Inspirations Dualism The Animatrix is an animated short series of films based on dualism, the idea of mind and body being separate thus allowing the characters to be able to place their mind into a computer is very inetertesing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc3eub1Rxu0 Created by: Wachowski Brothers

Inspirations Thriller I like this short film; it has been well made and has an interesting concept. The camera shots are good although the scenes are slightly repetitive and dark at times. I would make sure to avoid these things in my video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCA6i-idw-E Created by: Matthew Castano

Research I explored what makes a good ghost film and found some interesting results. According to my research most people prefer a ghost film that has realism and an interesting plot twist such as ‘The Others’ by director Alejandro Amenabar. The polls also show that people like good cinematography and good acting.

Research In post-production I will make it a dark and gloomy with a slightly saturated look to set a good mood for the short film. Although polls show that an audience likes a twist in a ghost film I think it would be difficult for me to create an interesting one in the time frame I have intended for the film, therefore I will avoid any twists and just make it interesting to watch by finding good film locations and creating realistic effects in post-production.

Research I have looked at good cameras to purchase for the purposes of filming this project, I aim to spend around £1,000 so that I know my camera will be future proof and of high quality. The Sony FX1 is at the top of my list, but as the retail price is between £2,000-£3,000 I will need to shop around for a second hand FX1 or find another camera in lieu. I had previously hoped to use the University cameras but because of the high demand (with other students wanting to use them) I know it will cause problems trying to book it on specific dates. I will keep to option of booking out a camera as my last resort.

Research Update Since looking for cameras I have discovered that Cannon has released a new DSLR that is part of their EOS range. The camera has a heavy price tag but really good specifications and an adjustable viewfinder for low and high shots. Since the camera is brand new I won’t be able to find cheaper second hand versions, before I spend out for the Cannon EOS 60D I will do some more research into it. Update The EOS 60D is perfect for video recording and much better than the Sony FX1; I purchased the camera from Jessops and it should arrive in a few days.

Research Update Now that I have the Cannon EOS 60D I can begin practicing with it and learning new techniques to maximize the quality, this will make my final short film look much better. Because I intend to have most of my shots stable I have decided I will next need to purchase a tripod (nothing fancy) so I went back down to Jessops and purchased the cheapest one I could find. I also wanted a dolly but they are super expensive and although there are online tutorials that show me how to create my own, it may take up too much time and cause further problems so I will do the best I can with the resources I have.

Potential Film Locations Over the next few days I have been taking pictures of film locations, here are a few of my favorite.

Potential Film Locations  

Potential Film Locations  After reviewing the pictures I have decided to shoot the short ghost film at my grans house; she has kindly allowed me to use any part of her house. The most appealing to me is the attic, bathroom and possibly spare bedroom. I will be using my Cannon EOS 60D and tripod to record a lot of close-ups, I will also in later stages browse the net for good sound effects.

Progress  I am going to complete the planning so that hopefully I can record the entire short film in one day rather than over the course of several. My gran is likely to move household objects around that may effects my film, for example if I position a box to the left of the first scene it may have been moved by my gran in the second scene If I shoot it on a separate day. Lighting won’t be too much of a problem as I aim to create my own using lamps. The props I’ll be using will be just household objects, this means I won’t have to shop for anything in particular. I will look for decent fake blood (stuff that don’t turn pink). If I fail to find realistic blood I can create some digitally in post-production.

Progress  So its taken me just under a week to finally create a storyboard that I like and can visualize, it isn’t anything fancy but it tells me what I need to know to create the short film. Tomorrow I will journey to my grans house and start setting up my equipment ready for filming, I have also contacted my friend in York who said she is available to do the make up for the ghost on Thursday (two days from now). This is fantastic news because my contact that owns a green screen studio is also available on Thursday.

Progress  So a cup of tea and a few cookies later I setup my tripod and camera in my grans bathroom and began shooting a close-up of the sink, I turned the tap on slightly so that it began dripping. Using the viewfinder I looked back at the footage and weren’t over the moon with what I was looking at, the sink looked too clean and fresh so I decided to ruin my grans lovely sink by putting compost and weeds in and around it. I also soaked an old newspaper in water then placed it in the sink. This should hopefully make the sink look old and unused. I recorded several versions (long-shots, mid-shots and close-ups) until I was pleased with the outcome.

Progress I then carried the camera and equipment up into the attic where I began filming my second scene. I had to move a few boxes around as they were recently put up there, the boxes made it looks like the house was still occupied so moving them out of camera shot was very necessary. The cobwebs and lack of lighting really made this scene look good. I did record a few other shots in the bathroom but I am yet unsure if I will use them. Unfortunately I’ll have to come back another day and film the rest, as setting up these scenes took longer than I had expected and it is getting late.

Progress So today I met up with my friends and begun shooting in front of green screen, the ghosts look great and the make-up artist done a fantastic job of making them look ghostly. On the way there I managed to pickup a few costumes from fancy-dress shops for the characters to wear. My favorite costume has to be the straitjacket, and it fit the character just fine.

Progress I’m pleased with the footage and confident it will work out well once I key out the green in After Effects. I will have to wait till Saturday (day after tomorrow) before I can go back to my grans to finish of the filming. So in the meantime I will take the green screen footage home and test it out on the clips I have already recorded previously at my grans.

Progress So tomorrow I can begin filming the last parts of the short ghost film. This morning I have continued to play around with the green screen footage and it works well, I have also explored and experimented with using different colour corrections. My main focus today however is to find a decent sound library, so far I have found a good one by Lucas Film and Warner Bro’s. Both are rather expensive but both will benefit me in the long-term. I’ll research into what’s best for me then purchase it.

Progress I spent the last few hours searching for sampled of the sounds files and Lucas Film is clearly better. Warner Bro’s is good but consists of cartoon sound effects that won’t help me for this particular project. The Lucas Film sound library is $495, expensive but I feel that it is necessary and will help me on future independent projects.

Progress This afternoon I went back round my grans to setup my camera and tripod ready to film the next clips for my final major project. As I predicted objects had been moved around but thankfully I was happy with the footage I recorded a few days ago so I had no need to reshoot, instead I took the equipment up into the attic and begun shooting up there. I wanted it to be dark so I never turned on the light switch; instead I left the door hatch open so natural light could get in. I can then make it slightly darker in post-production.

Progress Once I finished filming in the attic I took the camera into a the spare bedroom and begun filming in there, I tried to visualize where I wanted the ghosts to appear according to my storyboard so I filmed it with detail in mind, such as moving objects out the way and making the bed sheets flat so that it would make masking the bed easier (for placing the ghost behind the bed).

Progress Additionally I filmed other scenes that I hadn’t put down in the storyboard incase other shots I took didn’t work out or look good; I could also rely on the footage to increase the duration of the film (taking the film between three to six minutes). By the time I finished filming the scene it got late so I will upload the video footage tomorrow and begin editing them together.

Progress Ok so I have uploaded the RAW videos I recorded yesterday on my Cannon EOS 60D. Ill sort through them and delete the bad clips I have. I’ll then import the videos in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and cut the bad parts off of the good clips. Once this is done I can start adding sound effects from the Lucas Film library I purchased a few days ago.

Progress I experimented with colour corrections over the last couple of days and created one that I like. Using Red Giants colorista for Adobe After Effects CS5 I was able to create a slightly saturated, dark eerie look that I hope will set the mood of the short film. Once the video clips have been placed in the appropriate place I will export the film to After Effects and place the ghosts in the scenes, ill the add the colour correction and sound and export as quicktime using the PhotoJPG codec. Hopefully I can achieve this within the next few days.

Progress Ok so the video has been organized in its correct order. I’m gonna reimport the video in Adobe Premiere Pro and adjust the sound effects as I am unpleased with some of them, for instance when the women screams I think it her scream should go quitter when the door shuts so Ill cut and play the audio on a separate layer and lower its volume after the door has closed. I have also placed more thunder claps in the video, increased the volume of the flies and water drips. Despite the changes I feel the video looks a little incomplete so I will think of a better ending to add at a late time.

Progress Ok so a couple of days on and I have thought about the extra clip I would like to add at the end. I have decided that I will transform either mine or my sisters face into a demon-like creature using special effects and my DSLR. I haven’t experimented at this stage but I predict It would be as easy as recoding a face, importing the footage into either Adobe After Effects or Syntheyes for motion tracking. If the tracks are successful I believe it will be a smooth easy process from that point on.

Progress Ok so I spent a solid day researching into the possibility of morphing a face into a demon-like creature and it seems its been down many time before, I read a through articles and sat through some tutorials and feel confident enough to give it ago so tomorrow I will prepare the equipment for recording. My sister isn’t available tomorrow so its going to my face that gets morphed. So today is tomorrow and I have finished transforming my face into a demon. It was definitely fun to make and slightly embarrassing at times. I imported the final clip into Adobe Premiere Pro and cut and clipped it appropriately. I will put a thunderclap at the end of the transition at the time when my face changes, hopefully this will make the audience cringe or jump.

My Conclusion I am very happy with the final video, I was worried at the beginning because it was becoming difficult to find people willing to act in the short film. So I decided to create a video with just ghosts, thanks to the assistance of director Tim Burke. I used sound effects to set an atmosphere and mood and feel that it worked well. Overall I am pleased with the final video and happy about how well received it was with friends and family. I am glad I had the opportunity to take on this project because I have learnt many new techniques a long the way.