Production LogTrailer

• The filming process has been a bit difficult at the moment; even though we have a storyboard it is a bit difficult to follow it step by step due to unforeseen circumstances such as the availability of locations and props. Shooting the first couple scenes on the first day was quite an easy job however close to the end, my filming got cut short because the battery for the camera I was using had run out and had no back up so we had to take a trip from the location back to college to charge it up again so next time we will be more prepared which is a big skill in production especially as a director: preparation.

• Filming scenes according to the storyboard doesn’t always go to plan because as we got to our later scenes filming it was a thing where different ideas were popping into our heads causing us to change the original plan. We also had to change different shots and camera angles as viewing the actual scenes we were able to compare them against each other and see which one would be more effective and this led to following scenes being changed.

• The weather was another aspect that affected us throughout the filming process as we had to change dates of filming which slowed down the completion of the final product. Some of the actors which we had auditioned for and were going to use had not been available at all times so our schedule had to be suitable for the every role in our film. The locations we had used had been related to our primary and secondary genre of horror lovers and the urban teen audience but travelling in London we began to see more effective locations which were gritty.

• The weather was another aspect that affected us throughout the filming process as we had to change dates of filming which slowed down the completion of the final product. Some of the actors which we had auditioned for and were going to use had not been available at all times so our schedule had to be suitable for the every role in our film. The locations we had used had been related to our primary and secondary genre of horror lovers and the urban teen audience but travelling in London we began to see more effective locations which were gritty.

• The research I did at the pre production stage of my trailer was also an influence in changes to my storyboard as I began to grasp on opportunities which will make my trailer more horrific and attractive. Also because we had restrictions to what we could do in our film, we had to erase a couple films from our footage and this caused a setback in our filming. Each time we borrowed the camera it was slightly different to the one we began with so at the beginning of each filming session we had to adjust to the different camera which took a bit of our filming time away as we didn’t know whether it was broken or it just was different to set up which was eventually the case.

• Halfway though our production we had developed on the storyboard as I had come up with a whole new plot but with the same background storyline, this had been created briefly in a different way to our original storyboard, however by the end of our production process we only used around 60-65% of shots on our developed storyboard and around 40% from our original one which I feel was quite unprofessional and disruptive.

• Every shot we filmed, we filmed the original shot first then followed by a variety of shots just in case and for a wider option when in the post production stage. So this meant that a 5second shot will be around 3 - 5minutes worth of camera footage including all the takes and variety of shots.

• As a director and actor; due to limited resources, editor, and part time cameraman I tried to be in two places at once on occasions which was hard to do which left me to delegate some of my directing responsibilities to the producer and external stakeholders.

• The cannon camera we used to film our trailer had many different functions to it and even though we were given a tutorial on them it still confused me using them but after the first session of using it I adapted to the functions and was able to apply them to the filming. Also we used DV tape to record the footage and this is the less technological method of recording so it was a bit long to use as I had to keep rewinding and fast forwarding to get the filming to the right place.

• We decided to challenge the common conventions of a horror film by filming our film in daytime which we thought would be good because it creates a USP for our film as horror usually happens at night time but in some cases it might happen in front of our faces but we just don’t see it. We also done it because quality at night time is deteriorated whereas daytime is better and we thought to be able to get our genre across to our audience we would be able to use a colour corrector plug in to edit it and make that effect on it

• When we finally finished the production stage it was a relief to be able to just sit down and think about how the trailer would be put together. A problem we had from the start was sharing our desktop area with other students which meant there would be certain times we could actually work on our product.

When editing the trailer something I had to think about was the speed of the trailer which would relate to the native structure. I tried to use Todorov’s structure and incorporate it into my trailer but for some reason I was finding it difficult bring the plot of my storyline together with the structure. Adobe Premiere being new software to my knowledge meant that I wasn’t able to grasp using it straight away which caused me to look up on a tutorial on YouTube.

• My trailer being a horror trailer with an urban aspect in it caused me to be continuously thinking about what would shock the audience so out of our footage we brought out the most effective split second shots to put in our trailer. Also we had to make sure that a song which we gained from research was able to correspond to the rest of the trailer.

• To edit our footage we used adobe premiere to bring the footage together, however other aspects of the final product I used other software such as Photoimpact to create; the first still image and After Effects to create the title sequences. The producer had also used different software to create the institutions logo.

• Every software or different technology I used at this stage except premiere; I had already had previous years of experience in the software’s which sped up the process to reach the final product. However having a partner meant that decisions were coming from two different perspectives which caused both of us to do separate final products and then bring the best ideas together to create a better product. This decision was based on audience feedback who had watched both products. We thought this idea would be good as it would solve all problems and also benefit the final product at the same time. However this process was long and decided that maybe the best idea would have been for both of us to sit down together and edit it deciding on the right option on the spot.

• As a horror trailer the best option would be to use quick cuts as a main transition between shots to be able to have a deeper effect on the audience which we didn’t do to the best that we could have

• Most of the shots we had that were in broad daylight with sun in the background had been tinted to create a darker mood with the audience which was our intention.

• Also things such as the title sequence I designed in red background (After Effects). The background we used was a moving image of clouds and I edited it to make it red. Clouds on its own have a sort of gloomy effect so it being able to manoeuvre and changing the colour to red would make it very effective. On top of this we would use a text going by the name of ‘Coalition’ (coalition image) which I used as a main text for our product as it has a sort of gritty effect on it so I decided to use my text on top of the background in white which connotes a ghostly effect along with the red background which connotes blood and danger creating a mood within the audience.

• The usual green screen rating intro at the beginning of a trailer was also used in mine, however I adapted it to represent my trailer and I designed it myself in Photoshop and made it red to influence the genre of my trailer so that from the beginning my audience is already drawn into the dangers. An important aspect of a trailer is sound and I had a variety of sound effects available to me which I used a lot of them in my trailer such as bangs, hits, swooshes’ heartbeats etc. I used these sounds to be able to engage the audience into the trailer.

•My trailer consisted of mainly cuts however I had a few fades in the trailer to slow down the effect of the trailer and the mood of the audience. I did this on premiere by using the transition dip to black which will allow the fade which you can adjust to the positions you require.