Thursday, 26 February 2009

Editing

To edit my film, I used iMovie.
In my film I sed examples of fade in/out and the film titles.
I also used the software to cut my raw footage files up into sections that could be useful, this included cutting out the footage of me walking to/from the camera at the beginning and end of shots.
The film does have various flaws that I am aware of but was unable to rectify due to cast and time constraints, these include the bright sun in the background in the first shot, the fact that Chris' head is cut of at the end of that first shot and other things such as the quiet audio in the scene prior to Chris entering the woods.

Cinematography

Since there were only two of us when filming, I had to make use of a tripod and during editing, cut out the clips of me walking to and from the camera.
For the opening dialogue between Chris and Dan, we filmed one persons dialogue all in one take and then swapped the camera over and did it again, this was good for continuity.
There is a jump in the camera movement at the end of the intro but due to time and casting constraints I was unable to remove this.

Software

To edit my production, I used iMovie 06.
The software was on a Mac computer which I had previously only had limited experience of as I am used to using Windows systems (XP/Vista) so I had to learn how many of the functions worked.
I had also hardly ever used movie editing software before but using it in the preliminary task as well as the microdrama gave me valuble experience.
Some of the advantages of using iMovie include all the preset transitions and effects (such as fade in/out, dissolve etc.) and the stock sounds that came with it.

Equipment

To film my film intro I used a Canon MV920 Mini DV camcorder, this camera was one owned by the media department which I loaned out to film.



I also rented a tripod from the media department which proved valuble later on in the filming process.

Locations

The location that I chose for my project was a path in Ilkley that connects Parish Ghyll Road and Princess Road.
It is a straight path with a wall on one side of the path and a wooded area on the other.
It wasn't quite the location that I had planned in my initial draft ideas but it was the closest that I could find.
Link to a Google Maps map of the location.

This is the top of the path, the path itself is visible between the wall on theleft and the white building.















This is the view from behind the hedges, this viewpoint will be used to give the effect that the main characters will be being watched.




























This is the view down the path from about halfway.














This is the view up the path from about halfway.














This is the bottom of the path.














This is the bottom of the path looking up.

Casting

My film opening requires 2 characters:

Chris Voorhees- A medium sized caucasian brown-haired male who is slightly cocky in attitude.
For Chris I decided to cast Ben Gibson, a caucaisan male who fit my criteria.

Dan Loomis - A medim sized, brown haired male who is more reserved than Chris.
I had to, due to my original cast becoming unavailable, take on this role myself.

Both characters' surnames feature inter-textual references and pay homage to characters from well known horror films, Dan Loomis - Loomis from Halloween and Psycho and Chris Voorhees - Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th/Jason series.

Screenplay

Screenplay Draft

Draft Screenplay Draft Screenplay SamWhite