Deadline

so the deadline for everything to be handed in is tomorrow, and I've pretty much finished everything but my evaluation, which I'm going to have to do while I'm on holiday. yesterday i ripped my film opening to a DVD to show in class today (hopefully.) and maybe get some feedback from the rest of the class so far all my feedback has been really positive, most people love the first section where the girl is walking down the hall in time with the music.
i went back through all my files on my laptop from all 3 of my previous ideas to see how much i'd done and i was suprised to find that i had 125 unedited video files and 21 edited sections i didn't realise i'd videoed so much!

[Dare] Final Edit

three different ideas and i finally got the narrative together to do this.

i like this one best out of the three different videos i did because it flows smoothly, the narrative makes sense, the editing is edgey and fast and at times, timed with the audio which is exactly how i like to edit

i made a video with clips from my orgianl ideas and an explanation of what i liked and what i didn't like.

[Dare] Synopsis

Dares full story

Beginning
At the beginning of the film the audience's hears a girl die, they don't know why or how but it looks like a hit to the head, then they're introduced to the main character, a detective who has a lot of experience with murder crimes and serial killers he lists all the things he knows about serial killers and we audience sees someone doing exactly what the detective is say, this someone is the serial killer, the main bad guy. it becomes the detective's job to stop and catch the killings before they escalate. Like Todorvo's theory, this is the disequilibrium.

Middle
More people are murdered from the same school, they all have ID cards on them like the one in my film opening, they are all killed with a blow to the head but no weapon is found the detective suspects its someone from the school who is the serial killer so he starts talking to students, teachers and anyone else he can find to see if anything suspicious has been happening. when no further clues turn up the school is closed until further notice for everyone's safety but the killings don't stop in fact they increase.

End
the detective notices an inconstancy with the killings (location and how hard the victim is hit) and decided its more then one killer, he hangs around the locations that the killings have been happen and finds his two suspects who are the serial killers, it turns out that they have been playing an extremely sick game of dare to kill the people in there school they don't like. they get caught and locked up for life and equilibrium is restored.

[Dare] Recce

Locations i considered but didn't use:

In the first shot where the girl is walking down the hall, i had thought about using the hall at my house but it doesn't fit the genre because the walls are purple and there's nothing really sinister or creepy about it and there's lots of door handles sticking out everywhere which would mess a shot up, on the other hand the lighting is pretty good.
a lot of my shots are close-ups on the serial killer doing things, to do those i needed a room with a lot of light this room has light, but there's a lot of stuff in the way and it would be a pain to move everything around just to get enough light in.

This room is in a similar situation to the first, plenty of light but lots of stuff in the way, and its right next to the kitchen so there is almost always noise in the background i did use the drum kit in the picture to add audio though.
i sat on the kitchen floor while filming most of my serial killer shots because it the right amount of light that i wanted, i filmed while everyone else was out so i didn't have to worry about space or background noise and if i got any of the floor in the shot it would be okay because the wood looks rustic and old like the wood in the first shot of my opening.
i used this room for my detective scene, i covered the curtains because they're purple and i wanted to cut the natural light off and use lamps to light only parts that i wanted, i also cleared the desks off and only had props i wanted on them there.

[Dare] Lighting/Mise en Scene

I chose this location because its got the stereotypical old fashioned look that a lot of mystery films have in them and the lighting is dim but light enough to see whats going on, i also liked the stream of light across the floor, i thought that was effective as well.

i made her walk down the centre of the shot so the audiences eyes focus on that and nothing else.

it was a really bright day when i shot this section, which was good because i didn't have to worry about it being to dark when i edited it, though the brightness doesn't really fit the mood so i had to add darkening effects on to the clip in Sony Vegas

i was stood on a ladder when i filmed this shot, i wanted a high angled shot for two reasons. reason one, so that i could get the whole body in the shot and see everything on it because i specifically gave her a card in her hand and a bag which would come into play later in the film. and reason two, to make her look small and weak, if i'd done it from another angle you wouldn't be able to see the whole body very well and it wouldn't have the same impact on the audience

i made some blood with washing up liquid and red and blue food dye, though my sister wasn't to happy when i got it in her hair, but i needed it to look like she was bleeding from her head and it worked!

in this shot i had to cover-up my sisters curtains because they were purple and clear her desk so that were wasn't teddies and things in the shot and i put the things that she had worn in the previous shots on the desk so it looked like the evidence put out on a table like they do in CSI just not as high-tech, i had a test tubes set out as well from an old microscope i have.

I shot this from a side on angle so you could see the detectives face, and that was is looking at the card. if i'd done it from a front angle the audience wouldn't have felt involved like they were there with him because they'd be where the desk was which doesn't work!

because i'd covered up the curtains it made the room really dark, but that's what i wanted, i then used a lamp to aim the light at Darius' (the guy in the picture) face and the evidence, it still wasn't light enough so i added some lighting effects on in Sony Vegas afterward.

[Dare] Soundtrack

In my new soundtrack, I've kept the original first few shots and audio as they were because they were good, the other parts i either edited myself or downloaded from Freeplaymusic.com.

George scream unedited and edited by whiteisblack

i took a clip of my sister (who plays the girl who dies in my opening) screaming, then edited so it sounded more mysterious in 'Sony Vegas sound forge audio studio'

i also added my own drum beats behind another song, it acts like a heart beat i think, i had originally intend to do the whole soundtrack on the drums but i don't think that fits the genre at all so i thought it sounded effective behind a song from Freeplaymusic that didn't have any beat to it.

the highlighted part is the drum beats behind the song, on the purple layer (track 6) just after he highlighted section is the narrative voice over audio, i split it up and spaced it out so there were slight pauses between because it was spoken quickly and didn't have an suspense to it

also before the highlited bit on the green layer (track 5) there is some audio i record using my sisters guitar and amp, i put the guitar to close to the amp so it made a weird noise then recorded it and split it so that it sounded like it was stuttering which gives it an air of mystery that fits the genre, it also scares the audience.

Miss Sutton said it gave her goose bumps, and a friend of mine said he wouldn't go see this film because he doesn't like things that are scary or jumpy. i think that's mostly down to the soundtrack as its a key part of my opening and any film opening as it sets the mood.

[Dare] Storyboard/Script

The whole of this first section is fast passed with fade to blacks between shots and some shots will be black and white or inverted to make it more distorted.

all of this section is for the credits, inspiration taken from the opening of 'Se7en.'



Script

[Darius speaking, who plays the detective]

It starts with one
There's no guilt behind it
so they move onto there next victim
Serial killers i mean
as a detective i see them a lot
you have to put yourself in there mind to catch them
Obsessive behavior
like stalking
documenting
note taking on there victim
anyone would think they were you average Joe
but they're wicked smart
calculating
organized
clean to the point of obsession
you have to able to spot the signs and clues right from the first drop of blood.

[Every new line is there's a pause]

[Dare] Pitch

View more presentations from DaniGoRawr.

scrapping chick flick idea

i had a talk with my teachers and decided to go back to my first draft,
the problem with my first draft was that the plot didn't make much sense, the camera angles and editing were fine but the narrative was hard to follow.
now I'm keeping the first section of my first draft the same, the first 30 seconds or so, then I'm continuing on with my new plot from there.
in my previous post:
http://lutterworthasdanituffen0910.blogspot.com/2010/03/target-audience.html

i said that one of the reasons I'd changed was because of target audience, its true that for me it would be easier to aim for that target audience but my teacher doesn't think that first my style and neither do i, so by going back I'm aiming for my original target audience which was both genders and an age range of 16 to 20.

I'm going to use this as inspiration for the credits in my opening, this goes on for the same amount of time that my opening needs to go on for so i can see how i can make mine look.
i can do the shots, lighting and credits like this easily, but I'm going to have issues with music, i already have music for my first 30 to 50 seconds, but I'm still looking for music for the rest of it, i edit to music a lot at home so its one of my strong points but its difficult to find music like the music used in this opening



i get a lot of ideas for one film opening, but when i try to put them together i end up losing the narrative because i focus on the editing and videoing to much, with this new idea I'm planning it in depth and sticking strictly to it.

the plot of the new idea is as follows:

• it starts with a girl dead/just been killed.
• the story is from a detective's point of view
• the plot follows the detective trying to hunt down the serial killer as the number of victims piles up
• each victim is killed right outside there homes which suggests the killer stalks his victims before he kills them
• it ends with the killer being found out, after following a pattern of clues left on every victim and the links between each victim, e.g the first and the second victim knew each other

Target audience

One of the reasons why i changed my idea was because i'd lost inspiration in my orginal idea and my teacher had said that the genre wasn't quite right, so i decided to aim for a smaller target audience. Chick flicks are specifically aimed at woman so i decided to switch to that instead.

Idea changes...again...again.

im changing my idea again, this time completely, with a completely new genre, i decided to do a test idea first, and compare with my first idea and see which opening people liked better, my newest idea is the one that people like more and i think i can do a lot more with it as my first idea stopped making sense.

editing and videoing i can do easily, but i get a lot of ideas at once and they dont really make sense, so in the time i've got left im researching my new opening from the beginning.



the first two minutes of confessions of a shopaholic are pretty simple, the shots are long and drawn out and slightly slowed down, probably because its a memory,

the feedback i'd gotten on my new idea with the editing i'd done so far was that it hadn't really got a plot, i know in my head whats going on but i can't convey it to the audience, so im going to use a voice over.