GG - The Boom Microphone

We have decided to use the Boom Microphone in our production, there are many advantages to use using it.Firstly we film outside for a part of our production, we realised that when we just used the microphone already on the camera we got noise from the wind. This made the quality of the sound very poor. Also when we filmed our 'scream queen' screaming, because the camera was so close this also came out poorly. In our new opening scene we are going to include more dialect between the two characters as they walk down the stairs. By using the Boom Microphone the audience will be able to easily hear what they are saying.

The advantages of using the Boom Microphone are;

• Better sound quality.
• It doesn't matter how far away the camera is to the sound, the microphone will pick up all the sound because you can hold it close to it. 

The disadvantages to using the Boom Microphone are;

• It is time consuming using it on set. Plus because we film at night we have limited hours for filming. 
• The equipment is very expensive, we have to be very careful when using it. 

Me and Roam have both been shown how to use. This will help us on set when we come to using it because we can set it up quickly and efficiently. 

 A link to how to use a boom microphone

The dead cat. For blocking out noise of the wind when filming outside

GG - 2nd Rough Cut feedback

After gathering feedback from our second rough cut we were told that we needed to improve:

• Speed up the car footage, because it looks as if the car is driving to 'leisurely' and not quick enough. 
• Change the order of the shots when the villain is walking up to the car. With a point of view shot of the villain 'stabbing' the 'scream queen.' 
• The use of a 'Boom Microphone' so the sounds of the car unlocking and the 'scream queens' scream so they sound a lot better. 
• Add a few more shots to make it longer. For example shots of Megan turning on the radio and of a road sign. 

We still have to add the idents and the soundtrack to our production. 

We still have to re-shoot our opening shots which we are doing tonight (Tues 1st March.) We are also going to get a few more shots of the final 'stabbing' as well tonight. 

RH & GG Re-shoot rough cut

RH - Editing

Today I looked at editing our footage that we took at our first re-shoot. The shots we took were our driving shots that involved a car crash. We have not yet re-shot the scenes of our couple Casey and Sam at the house. What stood out whilst structuring our footage today was that we had so much more shot variation than last time. We also have kept the identity of the killer incognito whereas last time they were on screen for much too long. Overall I was extremely pleased with our footage and believe with the right soundtrack it will be terrifying. Our killer stalks and is very violent with his actions which makes him look extremely threatening. We use a lot of short takes which works very well. There are a few things we have to do to make our car crash look better such as; speed up the footage of the car swerving, also add the sound effect of tyres screeching.
A rough cut is to follow.

GG - Possible change of setting

We are having problems finding times when we can all meet. All the cast and producers can meet Wednesday. Our only problem though being the peoples house where we filmed our opening our out. This means that we might have to change the setting for our opening few shots. I have found another house in ilkley that is detached. It will be a perfect back up if we fail to film on the original setting. The owner has also confirmed that we can film on Wednesday 16th feb which helps us out a lot.

GG - Re shooting schedule

We have had all sorts of problems when it has come tore shooting our opening footage. Finding a suitable time for all the actors, if the settings is available etc... We have now found a spot when both me and Roam can go up with our actors and re film. This will be on Wednesday 16th feb. Although i am working till 5pm Roam is going up early and getting all the shots from outside the house when it is still light. I will then join them straight after work to finish off filming inside the house.

RH - More rough cut feedback via Facebook

We have re-shot the second part of our opening and currently in the process of editing that footage. We are yet to re-shoot the first part of our opening, I have gathered more feedback so we fully understand what we need to do to make our text make sense.
Here is a link to our rough cut on YouTube

RH - Re-shoot analysis

Our actors Megan and Tom on set!

Crew on set after successful re-shoot

Tonight we re-shot our scenes in the countryside which involve a car crash. The re-shoot went very well and we took a lot more shot variation than last time out. Instead of having two shots which are on screen for a very long time we will now have five or six shots which are very shot takes. We also got some more driving footage so we have more to play with in terms of editing. We had to use a different actor to play our killer, but we are extremely pleased with his performance and everything went smoothly. We were very inventive with some shots which should provide plenty of variation when it comes to editing.We will re-shoot our opening shots in different location (house in the countryside) either on Friday or over the weekend, we plan to upload this footage tomorrow and make a rough cut with the opening that we already have so we can pass on the footage to a composer, this will then help us compose a soundtrack to a rough version of what the film will look like. 

GG - Night of Re-shooting

Our new recruitment Tom Pickersgill

             Tonight me and Roam re-shot our footage. Because we had problems with some of the cast we had to re-shoot the whole thing.
             We believe we have made the car crash scene much better and believable. We achieved this by taking more shots of the car swerving. This will look a lot better on screen. The Villain also spent less time on screen to add to his 'hidden identity.' You only really see him when he approaches the car after the crash. We use a lot more shot variation throughout the whole of it, this will give us a lot more footage to use when editing.
             Yet again our actress Megan Claydon did an excellent job and our new recruitment Tom Pickersgill also did an outstanding job.
             Tomorrow (Friday 11th feb) we plan to complete all of our filming and be ready for editing. Roam has manage to pull in an old friend to help with the soundtrack. We should have everything ready for monday (14th feb) and get adding all the final touches.

RH - Change in cast

We have had to change our cast for our film as our re-shoot schedule cannot be met by one of our original cast members therefore Tom Pickersgill has been cast in replacement of James Crowther. He will play the role of the killer.

RH - Soundtrack update

We planned to create our soundtrack using Garage Band however George (Director) was finding it difficult to produce something. We were also hoping that we could use some music from his brothers band but we were unsure if this would be possible and how it would fit in to the genre. Today I was reminded that my parents have a friend who composes music as a career, I gave him a ring and discussed the possibility of getting a piece of music composed for our film or use something they have knocking about. We are hopeful that I can meet with him and compose something to match up with the footage. Despite this being very promising, we are going to continue to persevere at composing something on GarageBand in case this doesn't work out or we need to add in additional sound effects.

Here is a link to sound in film

RH - In detail deconstruction of our rough cut

Firstly we were told to fade into our opening shot instead of just going straight into the film. After our panning shot we should also shoot cut shots getting closer and closer o the house and then cut into the house. When our couple (Sam and Casey) come down the stairs they should be talking because in our rough cut it was they were on screen for too long without dialog. Also when the couple come out side we were advised to provide extra lighting because it appears to be pitch black. Also in our rough cut there was a sound when the door opens, we were told to exclude this from our final cut. Also are shots are too long, we need shorter takes, this just requires shot variation.


Secondly we need to record our sound separate to our footage e.g. when she unlocks her car, we need to record the sound made by the car, for this we will use the boom mic.Also we were advised to add a radio voice over during our driving shots, we would do this to provided a bit of exposition. In our rough cut we revealed the killer a long time before the car crash which removes all suspense and tension from the audience. We shouldn't show the killer at all apart from the actual murder. When the car crashes we should cut back to the killer to show the audience what has caused the crash. Next we will have the car crashed with the sound of the horn going off, we again will record this separately to the footage using the boom mic. In our final cut we will try get the shadow of our killer on the side of our car without the killer himself being on screen. This will provide tension and suspense for the audience.


Finally when the killer does come on screen we must use really short takes from 3 or 4 different camera angles, this will firstly provide coverage and secondly if the killer is on screen for too long the entire effect will diminish. Lastly the actual murder. Once again a very short take is needed, as if it is on screen for too long it will look very poor as we cannot produce a 'Hollywood' style murder.

This is our rough cut that was deconstructed! 

GG - Soundtrack

Today I am going to look at making a soundtrack for our opening set of shots. We are going to use the software Garage Band. Seeming as i use to use this software when i was younger i opted to do it. We have also asked my bothers band (The Swing Movement) if they could compose a song for us, for when the 'scream queen' is driving along the countryside. We plan to have her listening to the radio but also have a song playing quietly in the background to add to the tension.

A link to The Swing Movement's myspace

GG - Rough cut feedback

Overall we had positive feedback for our production. The viewer understood what was going on and enjoyed the set of shots we had. We still have some more shooting, and plenty of editing to do. We got a few ideas on how to improve our footage and wrote them down. For example more car crash shots. These will help us on our third night of filming. 

GG - Initial titles idea

We are now at the stage of deciding how we want our credits to appear on screen. After looking at various websites and other horror/slasher films we are starting to get an idea of how we want them to appear. 

• We have looked at the idea of Synchronised sound, the idea that the soundtrack is specifically timed to suit the images or the on screen titles. 
• We have also looked at Serif and Sans-Serif fonts. Because ours is a horror we will be using serif fonts when designing the titles. We plan to use a font with sharp edges to the letters to help signify the genre of our film. By this we mean not using curvy lettering which will signify a comedy or a child's programme. The sharp lettering could signify a knife or a some sort of sharp weapon. 
• We want the title of the film to appearer on a black background in either red or white font colour. We then want the names of the producer, director and cinematograph to come on screen in our first couple of shots overlapping the picture on screen. 
• We want them all to appearer on screen through a fade in and fade out. The title will be in the centre of a black screen. The rest will be to the centre as well but nearer the bottom of the screen whilst our first few shots are playing.

 A few examples of good opening titles would be Halloween (1978) and Sweeney Todd.

Sweeney Todd's title sequence was nominated for Best Film and TV Graphics. 

A link to Sweeney Todd title


Here is the Opening credits of Halloween. This film really helped us when coming up with ideas. 

A list of useful websites the help me think of idea's for our titles:

How to Properly Sequence Film Credits
The Art Of Film Title Design Throughout Cinema History
The art of the Title Sequence

ALL - Rough Cut Feedback

GG - New Ideas

              After applying the commutation test we had a discussion as a group and came up with some ideas. We have decided to change a few shot and re shoot some. The reason being we have had a change of idea for the story line, we want to make it look like Sam (the 'scream queens girlfriend) has something to do with the murder. We believe this will add more anchorage to who the killer is, making the viewer think Sam has something to do with it, connoting that he might be the killer.

              We have also decided that we need a bigger variety of shots inside the house. We think it is all to obvious and want to make it more interesting because there is not much Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound. 

              Another key discussion was the car crash. We are not massively happy with the outcome so we are planning on going up and re shooting it. We also believe that we need more shots of the car traveling across the country road. 

              Apart from these factors we are happy with our filming. With just a few changes we hope to have a goof production by the end of it.

GG - Re-shooting plans

After watching all of our footage and making notes, we have decided to re-shoot some of our opening shots. We want to make our opening scene more mysterious and questionable. Also because of  continutiy errors with the light inside the house. The idea was to signify that someone was watching, and make the viewer feel uncomfortable. The shots that we have are good but we want to make them more interesting with more shot variation.

We also found that we lost some of our footage, which we are going to have to re-film. It was only one short scene, but it was a key shot. We plan to do all this on Wednesday.