Location : western heights north center bastion (smokey)
We decided to use western heights as a location as it is the ideal place to get the footage and look we desire were else would be better to film a abandonment bomb shelter from the war than a real historic old run down bastion from the Napoleonic war in 1804.it is local and doesn’t take long to get to from any of the actors or people who play a role in this production. It provides us with the perfect set and and its such a large building with so many different places to film inside , filming locations with in the north center bastion, there are several tunnels and steps draw bridges holes and fire pits.
Other locations : The other locations we thought could be used : the old war tunnels around Dover castle ,the warren in Folkestone ,east cliff .we ruled these options out due to the warren being to open and not providing the element of being trapped we was looking for. although Dover castle war tunnels would be a appropriate location you cant get in there at night and the film has to be shot in dark , although we did discus filming it there and using effects ton make it appear to be night however we decided that its to hard to film as its always filled with tourists. Furthermore the tunnel is full of world war two memorabilia which doesn’t look very effective in a film which is meant to be a Napoleonic abandon tunnel.
Lighting : we had a hard job to accomplish the look we wanted in a pitch black tunnels we wanted it to be obvious that it was so dark in the bastion and tunnels with out making it so dark it was hard for the audience to see what was happening we first used a powerful torch shone in the center of the shot however when we got the footage back on the computers it was clear to see that it was a torch light straight in center shot we come to a group decision that this Is not appropriate for most of the shots as it is to artificial and doesn’t make sense however we used a few bits of this footage to show the handheld footage of the protagonists running away and exploring. We tried several different techniques of lighting for the rest of the footage for example using areas of the tunnels with more natural light in furthermore using lantern style torches therefore leaving no beams which worked alright however didn’t always light up the scene the way we wanted it to. We finally found that using the bright torch however pointing the beam out of shot for example at the ceiling of the side walls providing the shot with light with out a beam.
We used several effects on the shot once on imovie for example we changed the contrast of shots while darkening some and lighting some so they all were the perfect way we planned them to be.
Transitions: most of the transitions we used were cuts as this is a fast paced horror trailer fades representing long gaps in time would be not be appropriate quick cuts building up faster and faster to create tension and bring the audience into understanding the rush, fear and panic of the antagonists who are stuck in a run down war bastion. We did a very good job in creating the tension and telling the story with out giving to much away and enticing the audience wanting more and to find out what happens.
Shot planning : we followed the story boards the original arrangement of shots however we made a few changes for example I felt we could get a better opening shot if we filmed out of the bastion as we all walk through the trees towards it, which I felt was very successful and set the scene straight away the use of a long shot from inside looking down on the main protagonists which represent vulnerability and the element of being watched and looked down by something or someone .we had to use a wide variation of camera angles shots and movements to create the authentic style of a hand made documentary along side with showing the filming from the antagonists view and filming form different places to show the antagonist and protagonists in the same shots .
Costumes: we thought for the most realistic film we should wear the type of clothes we would wear to explore in a run down old building which was old clothes jeans and a hoodie. which was very convenient as we all had costumes already, we made sure we were all wearing very different colours so we could tell who was who easily as its hard to tell from night vision footage, we made sure all are clothing had dust and chalk on so it made it realistic because its very unlikely you would be exploring dusty tunnels and not be covered in dust and dirt.
Actors:
Ashdon Morgan
Andy Reet
Beth Sterling
Brad Champion
Georgia Bell
Luke Birrell
Tom Cock
We selected actors who would play the part well and have can be flexible with times to film and can get to the film location easily. we was going to use just people from are school as it would be easier to arrange when we could film , however we decided that it would very difficult to build the tension and show fear, as its a genetic convention of horror film to have scared young women.
sounds: we made a lot of are own sound effects in the tunnels for example when the door slams shut in the tunnel we tried filming as the door was slammed but unfortunately it didn’t make enough noise and couldn’t be picked up very well on the footage so we dropped a large piece of concrete onto a metal bin lid to provide the sound of the metal door slamming on to the concrete building. We had to experimented with several different objects and distances to accomplish the desired sound. we dragged a brick along the uneven floors to create a horrible scraping sound as if something heavy is dragging itself , we thought this was to direct so we faded it down in to a subtle background sound running along side the soundtrack .
Test shots:
We used a number of different test shots before filming the real footage and came up with a few ideas that we didnt put on our storyboards. We found that shooting shots out of the building itself, through the trees was very effective and something we wanted to include. We also tested how the camera would work moving in and out of the dark environments and whether it would loose focus or not and we were lucky that were able to acheive averything we wanted too.
creating the soundtrack:
We used a program called garage band which allows you to use cuts of drum beats and guitar solos and percussion samples to use all these stock sounds and cuts to create are own track whilst using various editing techniques . as you can see from the photo below garage band provides complete control of what you compose with options to blend each sample layer them edit the pitch and volume adjust at each individual second.
Script/Outline-
There is only a short peice of speach within our trailer which only takes place in one scene.
-close up of both actors facing the camera-
actor 1 (shouts) "hello"
actor 2 (shouts) "hello"
actor 1 (shouts) "hello"
actor 2 (shouts) "is anyone there?
This is a google mapshowing the location of filming you can veiw this as image map or image with road names on . it is indercated as the A maker on the map.
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Posted by Champion at 04:01
