I had no idea that this was week 14! I had completed the first draft of the introduction to the film, the footage is just over three minutes and with each scene of the zombie eating the corpse I added background noise of birds chirping. I uploaded the footage on to YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=oNcC6SysjBw
And have asked for feedback, I uploaded a link to the Quarantine:Breached Group directing them to the YouTube page.
I had begun to create the website to Quarantine:Breached late last week and will continue to work on it this week. I took more pictures of South Norwood with my camera phone, using the panoramic shot so that the user is able to move left and right through the site.
And example of this is from 30 Days of Night website:
http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/30daysofnight/
Here is an example of what I want my website to look like when it is finished.
Overall, I feel that the project has gone well and given more time to complete the project I could have had the movie half finished with trailers.
What is left is to finish off the website and the documentation of the project as a whole.
Monday, 26 May 2008
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
The Introduction
There was a small progression towards the filming.
We went to Cobden Foot Path which is around the corner from my house and is in South Norwood, this is a sort of alley way which connects two roads. Here would be the beginning, the introduction which will feature a zombie eating a corpse. This was more or less on the spot filming, very spontaneous. There was no planning of this introduction but I had an idea on the day and I mentioned it to my friends and they were more than willing to help.
I had my friends come over to my house and waited until 4am in the morning to get a good amount of natural lighting as well as an empty area so we had no interruptions from people walking past or going to work.
Two of my friends Daniel Davies and Michael Mclean would be filmed in the scene and Michael Skinner would be helping me do their make up as well as suggesting camera angles.
The idea was to have a corpse in the middle of the alley way being eaten by a zombie in various different parts of the body. The angles would change each time a credit would appear. So for example, there would be a medium shot of the scene then it would cut to a credit, cut to an extreme close up of the scene and back to credits. I felt the filming went well aside from the fact that my friends kept on laughing at the fact that they were tickling each other.
I will later on in the week start editing the footage and hopefully the introduction will draw some attention to the film further, this was just a test to see what my idea as an introduction would be like. Hopefully if I have enough time I can re-make the same idea of the introduction but better as I did not have a tripod so the clip was quite wobbly.
We went to Cobden Foot Path which is around the corner from my house and is in South Norwood, this is a sort of alley way which connects two roads. Here would be the beginning, the introduction which will feature a zombie eating a corpse. This was more or less on the spot filming, very spontaneous. There was no planning of this introduction but I had an idea on the day and I mentioned it to my friends and they were more than willing to help.
I had my friends come over to my house and waited until 4am in the morning to get a good amount of natural lighting as well as an empty area so we had no interruptions from people walking past or going to work.
Two of my friends Daniel Davies and Michael Mclean would be filmed in the scene and Michael Skinner would be helping me do their make up as well as suggesting camera angles.
The idea was to have a corpse in the middle of the alley way being eaten by a zombie in various different parts of the body. The angles would change each time a credit would appear. So for example, there would be a medium shot of the scene then it would cut to a credit, cut to an extreme close up of the scene and back to credits. I felt the filming went well aside from the fact that my friends kept on laughing at the fact that they were tickling each other.
I will later on in the week start editing the footage and hopefully the introduction will draw some attention to the film further, this was just a test to see what my idea as an introduction would be like. Hopefully if I have enough time I can re-make the same idea of the introduction but better as I did not have a tripod so the clip was quite wobbly.
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Success
Finally I have completed my script! Ideas have changed slightly, I realise that making a full 50 minute length video is impossible in 400 hours let alone 30 minutes so instead I shall be making everything from the website, posters, DVD covers, story and script (things like that) and also the introduction to the movie. The movie will be in episodes like a television series however, unlike television programmes the storyline will be constant, television series have a different story every episode. My episodic movie will end in cliffhangers in order to keep the viewers interested in the next episode.
I am very happy with the script I have created, it is the first time I have made a script and having friends to read it out I feel comfortable to send this forth to actors. Of course I am more than happy to receive constructive criticism from the actors in order to achieve a better flowing movie.
I have constantly updated the Quarantine:Breached FaceBook group news to keep the fans up to date with what is going on with the project.
I have carried on editing photos of South Norwood and once finished I upload them onto the group. People from the group like the way the zombie pictures look and I even uploaded the pictures onto my own album on my personal FaceBook page and the comments I had were very welcoming.
I suppose the next thing to do is to create a website for Quarantine:Breached which will involve Characters, Clips, Story and a Gallery. Things which you would expect to find in a movie based website.
I am very happy with the script I have created, it is the first time I have made a script and having friends to read it out I feel comfortable to send this forth to actors. Of course I am more than happy to receive constructive criticism from the actors in order to achieve a better flowing movie.
I have constantly updated the Quarantine:Breached FaceBook group news to keep the fans up to date with what is going on with the project.
I have carried on editing photos of South Norwood and once finished I upload them onto the group. People from the group like the way the zombie pictures look and I even uploaded the pictures onto my own album on my personal FaceBook page and the comments I had were very welcoming.
I suppose the next thing to do is to create a website for Quarantine:Breached which will involve Characters, Clips, Story and a Gallery. Things which you would expect to find in a movie based website.
Friday, 9 May 2008
Script
As I said before I have been looking at George A. Romero's script of Resident Evil's third film Extinction from the site: http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/resident_evil_romero.html
This as well as my small collection of Quentin Tarantino films such as True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers for ideas of conversations and structures of script making.
These have helped a lot as I am currently finishing the first draft and hopefully going to be reviewing it early next week.
These books and Internet source of scripts have taken Quarantine:Breached to a new level I feel. Without them I feel that I could never have progressed quite successfully.
On another note, the pictures I took while exploring the land of South Norwood have been edited...some of them. I chose the best looking ones that best suited a horror film poster and altered it around to my liking. There is a favourite picture which is of a tunnel that goes underneath South Norwood train station; Norwood Junction. I stood in the middle and waited until there was no one in view and took the picture, this was one of many images I took.
I uploaded the image onto Adobe Photoshop CS3 and played around on it. I made the light at the end of the tunnel disappear, I replaced the light with black so it seems like it continues on until the eye can not see any more. I used Brightness & Contrast (one of my favourite effects) to highlight the image and make it look more dirty. I then used the burn tool to make the tiles on both sides of the tunnel look as if no one has cleaned it for a long time let alone walk through the tunnel. I highlighted certain colours in the image to be darker.
Overall, the image was a total success, people from university seem very impressed with my ability to alter images to my liking and it seems that I do this to the audiences approval as well.
This as well as my small collection of Quentin Tarantino films such as True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers for ideas of conversations and structures of script making.
These have helped a lot as I am currently finishing the first draft and hopefully going to be reviewing it early next week.
These books and Internet source of scripts have taken Quarantine:Breached to a new level I feel. Without them I feel that I could never have progressed quite successfully.
On another note, the pictures I took while exploring the land of South Norwood have been edited...some of them. I chose the best looking ones that best suited a horror film poster and altered it around to my liking. There is a favourite picture which is of a tunnel that goes underneath South Norwood train station; Norwood Junction. I stood in the middle and waited until there was no one in view and took the picture, this was one of many images I took.
I uploaded the image onto Adobe Photoshop CS3 and played around on it. I made the light at the end of the tunnel disappear, I replaced the light with black so it seems like it continues on until the eye can not see any more. I used Brightness & Contrast (one of my favourite effects) to highlight the image and make it look more dirty. I then used the burn tool to make the tiles on both sides of the tunnel look as if no one has cleaned it for a long time let alone walk through the tunnel. I highlighted certain colours in the image to be darker.
Overall, the image was a total success, people from university seem very impressed with my ability to alter images to my liking and it seems that I do this to the audiences approval as well.
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Pace is Slowing Down
The group is slowly getting bigger and the main reason as to why I think it is doing that is because on FaceBook people get random invites to groups such as "Make Nando's Deliver" which obviously people would not care about so at first glance at my group people would dismiss it.
Hopefully word of mouth will get my group more recognised.
The script is going a lot slower than I had planned, making the conversations between characters is harder than it sounds as one would have to get to know the characters background, understand why the act they way they act, think they way they would. You would not expect someone like Tyler (in FightClub) to go to someone's house and be all romantic with the opposite sex, it is not his character.
I can not really do a lot more until I get the script out of the way, at least past its second draft as that is when the script begins to be more finalised. Once near completion I will be able to contact actors to play roles in my film, I can not ask actors to be a part of a film which does not even have a script that flows. They would not take it seriously.
I will begin to make posters, manipulate images to make the progress of my project more fluid and hopefully it will help pick up the speed of the production.
Hopefully word of mouth will get my group more recognised.
The script is going a lot slower than I had planned, making the conversations between characters is harder than it sounds as one would have to get to know the characters background, understand why the act they way they act, think they way they would. You would not expect someone like Tyler (in FightClub) to go to someone's house and be all romantic with the opposite sex, it is not his character.
I can not really do a lot more until I get the script out of the way, at least past its second draft as that is when the script begins to be more finalised. Once near completion I will be able to contact actors to play roles in my film, I can not ask actors to be a part of a film which does not even have a script that flows. They would not take it seriously.
I will begin to make posters, manipulate images to make the progress of my project more fluid and hopefully it will help pick up the speed of the production.
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Back in the UK
I am glad to be back but the time away in Chile has made me work on my written work a lot more, the second draft of the story - which I thought I could not improve - I did! I added a few things here and there and noticed the smaller details as to which were not possible to do during filming but would be great in the story. I tried to make the story tie in as much as it can with the movie so people can relate and compare the two.
As for the script I felt that making a rough version was a good idea and I had a look a script online that of George A. Romero who directed the original Dawn of the Dead in 1978, this script of his was meant to be for the third Resident Evil but it did not get used which I feel is a great shame as I think it would make a better film. I made the script so that it is easy to read but (and this was obviously going to happen) I need to make the dialogue for complimentary, for this I need the help of friends in order to hear the characters lines through someone else's voice but mine.
The make up tests I did when I arrived back went very well, the blood looks very shiny which makes it look even more real, I smeared it around my mouth and hands and for the small touch ups I poured a small amount of black food dye in my mouth and dabbed a small bit around my eyes. The effect is has is amazing, the blood dye in the mouth shows oxide blood, when blood gets a lot of oxygen it starts to go 'old' so to speak, the colour changes to be more darker.
The top I was using in the make up tests was an old top, I ripped off the sleeves and splattered the blood mixture on the item of clothing. I messed up my hair so it is not neat and tidy but messy and untamed. Once I was in the right character I made some stances in which a zombie would make and my friend Michael Skinner took pictures of me.
The test went extremely well and it was the exact effect I was looking for and I am very pleased I achieved this on the first attempt, I really doubt this could have gone any better.
As for the script I felt that making a rough version was a good idea and I had a look a script online that of George A. Romero who directed the original Dawn of the Dead in 1978, this script of his was meant to be for the third Resident Evil but it did not get used which I feel is a great shame as I think it would make a better film. I made the script so that it is easy to read but (and this was obviously going to happen) I need to make the dialogue for complimentary, for this I need the help of friends in order to hear the characters lines through someone else's voice but mine.
The make up tests I did when I arrived back went very well, the blood looks very shiny which makes it look even more real, I smeared it around my mouth and hands and for the small touch ups I poured a small amount of black food dye in my mouth and dabbed a small bit around my eyes. The effect is has is amazing, the blood dye in the mouth shows oxide blood, when blood gets a lot of oxygen it starts to go 'old' so to speak, the colour changes to be more darker.
The top I was using in the make up tests was an old top, I ripped off the sleeves and splattered the blood mixture on the item of clothing. I messed up my hair so it is not neat and tidy but messy and untamed. Once I was in the right character I made some stances in which a zombie would make and my friend Michael Skinner took pictures of me.
The test went extremely well and it was the exact effect I was looking for and I am very pleased I achieved this on the first attempt, I really doubt this could have gone any better.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Its All Kicking Off Now
Alas I have altered the first draft of the story and I am pleased with what I have thrown in there. Quarantine:Breached the story seems to be going in a better narrated direction than I had originally thought, now I am thinking is there room for further improvements or will that ruin the story?
Last blog I spoke of doing make up tests...well I did do it as well as create the Quarantine:Breached group on FaceBook which I am not sure you are able to see unless you join FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17856471223
I have created this group in order to share to the people of the World Wide Web what is going on, the latest news in the development of my project, the show people who join or even visit the group images I have taken which include the gruelling blood bath I did at night and now the even more recent make up tests. For the sake of keeping up interest I have edited the upload date of the images on the FaceBook group to show more interesting things keep coming out from the this project.
I have friends joining the group which helps me a lot as no one had any idea I was making a film in the first place and the feedback I have received is great. I hope that the word of my film making project will spread and that I get a lot more people to become fans of Quarantine:Breached.
While in Chile I have no equipment to use for further material of my work so I have begun to do a rough script which I can then edit with no problem. The advantage of being in Chile is that I have not got the same distractions as I had while in England such as television, friends and the usual going out, the disadvantage of being in Chile is the mood here is quite uncomfortable and I have no equipment to carry out my work.
Last blog I spoke of doing make up tests...well I did do it as well as create the Quarantine:Breached group on FaceBook which I am not sure you are able to see unless you join FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17856471223
I have created this group in order to share to the people of the World Wide Web what is going on, the latest news in the development of my project, the show people who join or even visit the group images I have taken which include the gruelling blood bath I did at night and now the even more recent make up tests. For the sake of keeping up interest I have edited the upload date of the images on the FaceBook group to show more interesting things keep coming out from the this project.
I have friends joining the group which helps me a lot as no one had any idea I was making a film in the first place and the feedback I have received is great. I hope that the word of my film making project will spread and that I get a lot more people to become fans of Quarantine:Breached.
While in Chile I have no equipment to use for further material of my work so I have begun to do a rough script which I can then edit with no problem. The advantage of being in Chile is that I have not got the same distractions as I had while in England such as television, friends and the usual going out, the disadvantage of being in Chile is the mood here is quite uncomfortable and I have no equipment to carry out my work.
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Picture Crazy
It is important to note that I am currently in Chile - South America visiting family in an important time of need. But before I left I have done some work and I hope to do more when I have the spare time here.
I went out to South Norwood with some friends at 2am in the morning to get the complete dark/night time effect, we made some fake blood and went around splattering it around on white walls to give off a scene of a violent attack. The result was that it went down very well. For this I had to use the washing up liquid to make it run against the wall, it did look like someone had been attacked viciously so in order to not cause a scene of disturbance we decided to clean the area of the markings with some cleaning products and leave the walls the way they were before we violated it.
I will be uploading these images to the Quarantine:Breached Group which I will create later on this week or even today.
I feel that today was a great success and I hope I am able to use these images in my project.
Tomorrow I will do the make up tests since I feel ready to get down and dirty. This will take place in my own home so I am able to do more work on my first draft of the story as well as make up mixtures.
I went out to South Norwood with some friends at 2am in the morning to get the complete dark/night time effect, we made some fake blood and went around splattering it around on white walls to give off a scene of a violent attack. The result was that it went down very well. For this I had to use the washing up liquid to make it run against the wall, it did look like someone had been attacked viciously so in order to not cause a scene of disturbance we decided to clean the area of the markings with some cleaning products and leave the walls the way they were before we violated it.
I will be uploading these images to the Quarantine:Breached Group which I will create later on this week or even today.
I feel that today was a great success and I hope I am able to use these images in my project.
Tomorrow I will do the make up tests since I feel ready to get down and dirty. This will take place in my own home so I am able to do more work on my first draft of the story as well as make up mixtures.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Taking A Bit Longer Than Expected
Reviewing the story is taking longer than expected, I am on my second draft only and it still does not seem right. It is at this point which I am thinking whether the story itself is the right choice or should I even change my module idea? It seems pointless to do so when three weeks in to the project, besides I figure I have reached writers block. So on that note I will continuing taking photographs of potential on site locations to film as well as conducting make up tests that would best suit my zombies.
I look forward to dressing myself or someone as a zombie. I will plan to do the usual, get an old top and rip it up, cover it in fake blood and then with myself or my victim so to speak I will be making them all zombie-fied.
Will take plenty of images to document my progression of the make up and maybe even do some stances which are expected of a zombie in case the pictures come out really well and I would want to use them in my posters.
I will making the blood from red food dye, syrup and a hint of blue food dye, this will be for the mouth area as it is not poisonous to the person/s. If I wanted a proper decent runny blood effect I would include washing up liquid to make it less sticky and more fluid.
I look forward to dressing myself or someone as a zombie. I will plan to do the usual, get an old top and rip it up, cover it in fake blood and then with myself or my victim so to speak I will be making them all zombie-fied.
Will take plenty of images to document my progression of the make up and maybe even do some stances which are expected of a zombie in case the pictures come out really well and I would want to use them in my posters.
I will making the blood from red food dye, syrup and a hint of blue food dye, this will be for the mouth area as it is not poisonous to the person/s. If I wanted a proper decent runny blood effect I would include washing up liquid to make it less sticky and more fluid.
Thursday, 20 March 2008
The Pre-Production
I have started on the story of the film, the genre is Horror and the theme is Zombies. Cliché I know as there have been loads of films with this theme and no doubt many many more.
The basic idea of the story is that a small area of the far South East of London known as South Norwood (near Croydon) is hit with a wave of zombies after an experiment to cure diseases at a fast pace turned in to a virus that is passed from person to person via bites and cuts. There is the so called protagonist called Chris is a news reporter who is caught up in the whole mess, he is a person that is up himself, egotistical, who hates the world and everyone in it and only cares about his own safety. He bumps into some unexpected visitors during his visit in South Norwood, soon enough he has found himself with a slight problem....he is half zombie and half human.
Once the story is fully written I shall begin on the script which I know will take the most amount of time. I have a film studies friend who said he will help me understand the basic concepts of script writing, telling me to look at certain scripts as well to understand when to include medium shots, extreme close ups. Being at the British Record Industry of Trust college (BRITs) I learnt many different types of camera angles, about diagetic and non-diagetic sound however, I have never been taught how to write up a script so this part will be new to me.
The basic idea of the story is that a small area of the far South East of London known as South Norwood (near Croydon) is hit with a wave of zombies after an experiment to cure diseases at a fast pace turned in to a virus that is passed from person to person via bites and cuts. There is the so called protagonist called Chris is a news reporter who is caught up in the whole mess, he is a person that is up himself, egotistical, who hates the world and everyone in it and only cares about his own safety. He bumps into some unexpected visitors during his visit in South Norwood, soon enough he has found himself with a slight problem....he is half zombie and half human.
Once the story is fully written I shall begin on the script which I know will take the most amount of time. I have a film studies friend who said he will help me understand the basic concepts of script writing, telling me to look at certain scripts as well to understand when to include medium shots, extreme close ups. Being at the British Record Industry of Trust college (BRITs) I learnt many different types of camera angles, about diagetic and non-diagetic sound however, I have never been taught how to write up a script so this part will be new to me.
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
The First Draft
I wrote the first draft of the story, which I am fine about but I shall be re-writing and editing certain parts of the story to make it better. A story is meant to set the scene and make who ever is reading it feel apart of the action involved. The first draft does not do this so I will have to review this disadvantage.
During the first draft of the story I have been going around South Norwood at different hours of the day/night and taking various different pictures on my digital camera to which I may use as posters for advertising.
Once the story is near final completion I will start to write up a script that will follow the story in dialogue form which the story lacks.
I have recently bought the graphic novel of 30 Days of Night and I have enjoyed this read so much that I have thought of making my movie into a graphic novel as well...though I seriously doubt that I have the time to do this with everything else to complete. Just an idea.
During the first draft of the story I have been going around South Norwood at different hours of the day/night and taking various different pictures on my digital camera to which I may use as posters for advertising.
Once the story is near final completion I will start to write up a script that will follow the story in dialogue form which the story lacks.
I have recently bought the graphic novel of 30 Days of Night and I have enjoyed this read so much that I have thought of making my movie into a graphic novel as well...though I seriously doubt that I have the time to do this with everything else to complete. Just an idea.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
The Idea
Few days after my first entry I began to come up with ideas for this module. There was an in depth website which users could explore like an adventure, then there was also a magazine idea where I could introduce computer games, programs and computer components. In the end I decided to choose to create a film with the contents that come with it such as the move website, film posters, a short introduction to the film and more.
I have always liked the idea of making a film and I have done everything that comes along with it such as the website, posters, the advertising and so on but never the actual film itself. I feel this would be an interesting project to do.
I have always liked the idea of making a film and I have done everything that comes along with it such as the website, posters, the advertising and so on but never the actual film itself. I feel this would be an interesting project to do.
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
The Start
This Double Project module assigns me to create a piece of work that would count for 400 hours worth of work. This is a great way of finding out what I really like and showing it to the class/university, I am able to do something which I would not have been able to do.
Apparently anyone on the course can create anything at all. This week I shall be compiling a small list of media's to which I shall choose one and focus on that.
Apparently anyone on the course can create anything at all. This week I shall be compiling a small list of media's to which I shall choose one and focus on that.
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