What the film was about was left up to us, but the minimal requirements were that:
- The video had to be at least a minute long
- It had to include dialogue
- There had to be at least two people acting in it
I didn't exactly jump at the chance when I first heard about it. My experience with filming in the past was next to zero and it was initially hard for any good ideas to materialise in our heads for a good opening. Indeed this piece wasn't completed for a long time after after we were assigned it. Despite that it was ideal that there should be this 'continuity piece' on the blog as a kind of anchor, so continuity piece I did, and this post covers the planing and ideas stage, the completed piece and an evaluation afterwards. Enjoy.
Ideas Stage:
So to begin with I was doing what any person with a budding idea does, and that's create waypoints and put them in some kind of orderly state that can be made sense of. So to start off I created some basic plot functions that would be what the events of the opening revolved around. As said before these were initial thoughts but the outlines of the idea are bullet pointed underneath.- Obviously a Thriller, so needed to include some elements of what a Thriller film entailed - suspense, tension, build-up, plot twists, and a constant feeling of danger.
- We decided early on that the sub-genre would be a classic crime thriller setting, or one that had supernatural elements to it, in this case possible murder.
- In this case the victim would be a teenage boy walking his dog as the light is fading from the sky
- As the boy goes to collect the dog lead after seeing the time he thinks he sees someone in the bushes of the house behind watching him, but when he looks out of the window nobody is there
- The boy receives a note in his letterbox, containing his house key and a message within saying 'funny place to keep your key.'
- After receiving the note and becoming spooked from it, the boy quickly gets his dog and hastens away from the house at a quick speed.
- The setting then changes to a wood at very low light, and has the boy walking down a dirt track. He then allows his dog off the lead, only to have him run off into the dark wood and forcing the boy to go in after him. As the boy is searching he hears something from behind a tree. Cautiously approaching he gradually walks round and it is revealed to be the dog. Relieved the boy stoops down and re-leashes him only to stand up again and suddenly someone is standing behind him. As he turns round the last thing seen is a knife being brought down.
- Alternatively he asks his father about the house behind and is told it's abandoned, and rumoured to have been so because of a mass murder there. As the boy leaves his dad is revealed to be staring after him menacingly.
- Following from talking to his father and leaving the house, there is shown to be someone on the lane behind him following him, but each time the boy looks round nobody is there, as he keeps moving the figure gets closer until he is right behind him, the boy then turns round and the last thing heard is his scream.
In coming up with these ideas I also thought up two different title for each of the possible films.
For the crime based one, with the note and the woods the title would be:
THE CIRCUMSTANCES
For the supernatural themed trailer, with the conversation and the mysterious man I came up with the title:
The House Behind Ours
In the end, whilst both ideas were good, I could only go with one or the other. So in the end I chose to go with my second idea: The House Behind Ours, mainly because after doing some film testing in the woods it was made incredibly difficult to film in the kind of light I was after to make it effective. That and I hadn't thought of where any dialogue could be included in my other idea, so the other idea was easier, plus I could film within vicinity of a place that I had unlimited time in.
So with that decided it was now onto the development and creation of - The House Behind Ours
Development Stage:
This stage was the experimental stage, where flexibility was allowed. This section includes bits and pieces of miscellaneous things that didn't make the final cut for the movie. There are two things to look at here - the first being unedited shots of video footage from the other storyline for the crime thriller both in the house and in the woods, before I decided to go with the supernatural one; the other being a piece of screenplay for the supernatural Thriller (the rest of which will be covered in the creation stage) that was cut out of the final screenplay so as not to make the trailer too long, since it was only meant to last a couple of minutes, one minute minimum. (One thing I should mention. I do have footage of filming in the woods, but for some reason it won't upload, so we just have footage from the house as of the moment.)Scrapped Video Footage:
Scrapped Screenplay:
Scene then shifts to outside the house, back with the same shot from the start, showing Sam leave through the gateway and out onto the lane.
Shot then changes to a side shot further down the lane, of Sam walking by, then cutting to a closer shot of his face.The shot changes again to a view of the front of Sam's face, and now a dark figure is seen standing on the road behind him, with his head out of the camera's frame.
Sam then looks behind him abruptly, and the shot then shifts to a shot of further up the lane behind where the figure was. Sam stays still for a moment then turns his head around, and the shot switches back to the shot before, only with the dark figure standing much closer behind him, as Sam starts walking again.
The shot then changes to a shot of Sam appearing at the end of the lane, and another close up of the side of his face.
The shot then reverts back to the front of Sam's face, with the dark figure standing right behind him.
Final shot has the camera close in on Sam's head from behind until finally Sam glances behind and his face becomes shocked. The last thing heard is Sam's scream before the camera cuts to black screen
Creation Stage:
For these reasons I realised rather late that I couldn't do the filming without some outside help, so I enlisted the help of my dad and my brother to help with the camera. Since I wanted the film to look good I decided that, with one camera, I would need to be clever in how I filmed and edited the film to make it look good. Speaking of which the editing was the one place that I found relief. Thanks to my computer I had access to the Apple editing software - iMovie, so the editing stage would not be an issue, and I had plenty of soundtracks to use for the editing process.
Thanks to filming tests that I had done beforehand I knew how the film could be shot, where the ideal shots would be, and how to make them work effectively in the location we were using. The next thing I did was write up a screenplay for the trailer, so that both I and the people working with me knew exactly what shots there would be and how the video would play out. I also created a movie poster using photos that I took during the filming. You can see the movie poster to the side here. The links to things on the poster that I didn't make myself are at the bottom of the post as usual.
The next stage that I did was to map out exactly how I wanted the trailer to run, what shots there would be and where, and what dialogue would be present, so to this end I hand crafted a screenplay detailing all of the necessary details, both to clear my head, and to show the others exactly how it would play out. The screenplay is down below, with some photos I took to better show how the shots would look. There is also a link up on the blog itself to a different page with just the screen play on it, without the images.
Thriller Continuity Video - Screenplay
Starting from a black screen there is a gradual fade-in showing an establishing shot of the location: a lane sloping downwards with many houses either side. The light is low and a figure can be seen walking down the lane at the bottom, but the camera then begins to pan round to the left to show a large house with a big driveway, and two rows of low fence crossing over a path leading around the back of the house.
Shot then cuts to view from the back of the house, now on the other side of the two fences, with the driveway visible at the back of the shot. The camera then tilts/pans diagonally left, up to a window on the top floor.
Shot zooms into the window and fades out into a shot inside the room from where the window is, showing Sam taking off his shirt and picking up a white tank top on his chest of drawers.
Shot cuts to a closer shot of Sam as he puts the top on then sits back on bed and glances behind him at his clock.
Camera follows his glance and then cuts to a close-up picture of the clock, displaying the current time.
Shot quickly cuts to a shot from behind Sam's back, with the doorway to the room at the back of the shot. As he speaks he gets up, grabs his jacket and leaves the room.
Sam: No way (mouthed quickly). Alright, best get going. It'll be dark soon.
Shot then changes to a shot of an open door, in a room on the ground floor, with a long window looking out into the back garden and a work desk beneath. Sam then enters and camera follows him to the other side of the room.
Shot then cuts to an outside view from the bushes in the garden, looking into the room that Sam is in.
Shot then cuts back to Sam with a dog lead in his hand, glancing out the window briefly, then looks out again straight away, thinking he saw something.
Shot changes to view from inside the room, looking out at the bushes, as if from Sam's point of view.
Shot changes to side shot of Sam looking out of the window. He then shakes his head and turns to walk out.
Shot changes to a shot from the outside bushes, showing Sam leave the room.
Starting shot following Sam through from the sitting room doorway and along down the small part of the hallway. Dad is sitting at the table, at the end looking towards the doorway. Cocoa is lying down on his bed dozing
Sam: Dad!?
Dad: Hello? (calling back in response to Sam)
Shot then switches to a still shot from over dad’s left shoulder as Sam comes and looks through the doorway. Then comes towards the camera holding the lead.
Sam: Oh you are there, hey
Dad: Hi Sam
Shot then changes to a diagonal shot of dad sitting at the table, as Sam walks past the camera to where cocoa is.
Sam: OK, You wanted me to walk him?
Shot changes to me in the frame standing by the chest of drawers, from head down to torso, as I lift the lead up to show the camera
Sam: So I’m walking him
Shot changes to a shot from against the work surface looking at both Sam and Dad in near full of the camera’s frame.
Dad: Excellent
Sam: Don’t expect me to be out long though. It’s not like it’s something I enjoy doing. Besides have you seen the time? It’ll be dark before I know it. C’mon Cocoa!
Dad: OK see you later!
Shot changes to in the hallway at head height. The table is still visible as Sam comes towards the camera. Sam stops and looks back.
Sam: Hey Dad, question.
Shot-reverse shots of Sam’s and Dad’s faces, gradually getting closer to Dad’s face at each piece of dialogue.
Dad: What? (camera on dad)
Sam: That house behind ours, the one surrounded by overgrown bushes. (camera on Sam, low angle so looking diagonally up at him) Who lives there?
Dad: That house is abandoned. (camera on dad) Has been for a few years. That’s why it’s overgrown. (camera on Sam) It was like that when we moved here.
Sam: Anyone know why it was abandoned? (side shot of Sam’s face from kitchen side of door frame)
Dad: (camera on Dad) I don’t know Sam. (camera then changes to dad’s close up face from a side angle) People say it was a mass murder, during a house party, but the sources aren’t reliable. (camera then changes to normal and zooms out) Why do you ask? (camera on Sam)
Sam: Uh. No particular reason. Just wondering. C’mon cocoa.
Shot then changes back to a shot from behind dad, with his head around the side of the frame, showing Sam leaving the house.
Final shot is from the outside as Sam shuts the door, showing dad slowly taking off his glasses and then the door shuts, then the shot fades to black.
The Video:
With the screenplay done and the shots being taken, the only thing left was the editing of the film. Since it was also my first time using iMovie, it was a good excuse to take a look at my available options, and the amount of flexibility I had with editing. One thing I forgot to mention at the start of this post is that the video doesn't get marked, but it's meant to demonstrate your understanding of camera shots and how to use them effectively; but since there is another video to be created later that does get marked, this project enabled me to test my filming capabilities and what I had to work with. The piece didn't require much editing, just some lighting changes to make it seem darker, some volume adjustment to make the dialogue easier to distinguish, some shot trimming and some non-diegetic soundtracks to back-up the action. Then just convert to quicktime, submit to youtube, and download. So without further ado, I present to you my completed Thriller continuity video:
The House Behind Ours -
Designed, Directed and Produced by Sam Thompson and Forrest Sherwin
Actors:
Sam Thompson
Forrest Sherwin
Richard Thompson
Cameramen:
Sam Thompson
Forrest Sherwin
Richard Thompson
Joseph Thompson
Carol Thompson (Development Shots)
Software for Editing:
iMovie for iMac (Edited by Sam Thompson)
Music:
In the Future - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Soundtrack - Arata Iiyoshi
Planet's Paralysis - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Soundtrack - Arata Iiyoshi
Fortune Ravine Depths - Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Soundtrack - Arata Iiyoshi
The Evaluation Stage:
So we get onto the final stage of this post. This will be a self evaluation, not really following any set questions, so it may be a bit unorganised. Where to start.
Well to begin with, considering in the end it was just me from my class working on this, I was filming with an I phone, and I'd never done filming in the past, I would say that I'm incredibly pleased with how this film turned out. It certainly fit the criteria - 2 mins, 21 secs is not too long a time scale and certainly over a minute, there was definitely dialogue included, and there was more than one actor involved. The film also experimented with camera angles, different shots, the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound, and the effectiveness of dialogue; all of which are used effectively enough in the film, and show a variety of different experimentation which I can use to my advantage in the future for my second video.
I can't judge very well how good it was at incorporating elements of Thrillers, since I'm so used to seeing it through creation, plus creation kind of takes away the crucial elements of a plot, since you always know what will happen. I know that I certainly tried to implement the elements into the video. Feedback from people who have seen it says that I does, but not overly strongly.
There are definitely many things that I would improve on the video if given the chance. I think that the wasn't any problems with the editing, but having one camera made it very difficult to work efficiently, so in the future I would definitely use more than one camera for filming like this.
The next thing that I would want to improve is visual quality and camera movement. An IPhone isn't the most ideal thing to film with, and has a degree of unprofessionalism to it, and since I had no other equipment like a tripod at my disposal I had to rely on steadiness of hand for panning, tilting, and tracking shots, and also had to use still shots far more frequently to make the filming easier; so definitely come with proper filming equipment in the future to ensure the best camera quality.
Finally there was the problem of the number of people working on it. At the start there were three people working on it, but that went down to one by the end of the creation. I can only credit the work of one of the other people in my group in the creation of this film, and even then more than 3/4 of the work done towards the videos was left up to me, hence why I had to enlist my family to help out a great deal. It was a reliable way to work, but again an unprofessional way of going about it, so I want to be able to have more people, specifically from my Media class to help me in the future.
To conclude, as far as I'm concerned, from the view of a creator looking at his finished work, I do like how it turned out, but that is maybe because I compare the finished piece to the bare bones of it, before it was put together, which I know is something that people who are reading this post can't see. By itself, in my opinion, for an amateur effort with no previous experience it is a very good piece of work.
No comments:
Post a Comment