TE2775- Creating My Title

I am using Photoshop to create my title for the film, as it is a horror, I want to create something which looks dark and eerie, I started off by adding a deep red colour, I then added a layer, clicking on the on 'layer' on the top left, then choosing 'pattern'. I then chose the colour I wanted and what sort of effect I wanted over the coloured layer, I chose the 'colour burn' one as it looked like something I was going for. 

Now to add the text. I went onto a font site called 'Dafont' and downloaded a font I wanted to use as Photoshop doesn't really have many I wanted to use for my specific genre. After a lot of searching, I found the one I liked and downloaded it and used it in Photoshop.

I then added the text and this is not my actual name, I am trying to come up with one but I changed the text around adding 'stroke', 'bevel and emboss', 'outer glow' and 'drop shadow' to make it look better.

Here's the text without all of the detail that I added: 

And it now with the detail:

I will keep working on my titles and keep updating on my blog, this exercise was just to get a feel of how I want my titles to look and how they will fit in with my genre.

TE2775- Titles

Since this film is going to be that of a horror/thriller genre, I want my titles to look this way, most horror titles created by students do not fit the genre and almost look too comedic or 'funny', I do not want to portray this. I have looked at many different film titles, looking how they use titles to make their film look a certain way.

Insidious is a horror film about a family being haunted by something evil. The font looks demonic and the colour red screams 'danger', 'scary', 'blood'...

This one is slightly less scary, it doesn't really have the stereotypical aspects of a horror title, yet it makes an impact. The font is bold and makes a statement, the colour black is basic yet if you look at the title more and study it, it does look a bit sinister, the colour black can be associated with darkness and evil.

This one is the most 'horror' looking one to me, they have taken the font actually used on a Ouija board and it works, the scratched effect running through the font looks very effective and portrays that this film is about something sinister.

Making my titles relative to the film is a big thing for me, I want everything to fit in and look a part of it, I will be using Photoshop to create my titles. I will be documenting how I make it on this blog.

TE2775- My Storyboard

I have created this storyboard for when I come to film my footage, it shows how I want the layout to be and what clips I want to show, other things I have included which you will not see on the raw footage are the special effects that I will be adding in the post production of this project. This storyboard is only a rough copy and may change whilst I am filming or editing, changes made will be taken note of and spoken about on this blog. The timing of the scenes drawn out may not be precise, however, I may chose to film different scenes differently altering the time of the film.

TE2775- Location and Themes

The location of film is going to be Preston in my house, I will be filming my flatmate in my room just pretending to sleep, it is quite simple but the post production is where the hard part comes in, as I want his dream to look totally different, I want to include scary SFX, sound is also going to be a big thing in this piece to create the scary theme in it. I will be using After Effects because it is the best editing programme I can use the give the film certain features I want. The whole plot is not decided yet and I still do not know what things I want to add in it to make it scary but this should be clear as soon as I complete my storyboard which will be uploaded on to here.

The theme is going to be scary because my character will be dreaming, this will look good on camera and it is not too much of a challenge as I have very limited time as I cannot edit from home, I will have to come into University to complete this project.

TE2775- Influences from Films I like

I have been researching different films which use special effects to see what effects I like and can possibly use in my project, this is to give me more ideas and I can also look into how the films are made to give me more knowledge and also using YouTube to watch tutorials as some people upload videos showing how to use After Effects and I can possibly use their techniques if it is not too much of a challenge, since I am not very skilled in editing.

I quite like the film 'Monsters' by Gareth Edwards, I first learnt about him in my second year of Media Studies in college, we looked into how he made the film and it took him a very long time using very basic technologies and editing software, however, he made the film look amazing with all of the special effects which were done on a computer, not CGI, which is rather expensive and we see this used a lot in big conglomerate films. 

The monsters look so realistic and this is something I can try to add to my idea, maybe my character can be dreaming about the future or some post apocalyptic world,

Another film I like which has a lot of special effects is Jurassic Park, although this is now an outdated film, it is considered one of the best films of its time because the dinosaurs were computer-generated and looked so real for a film in the 90's.

The dinosaur looks so real and is computer-generated which is better than it being a model like 'JAWs' was. We see so much detail of the dinosaurs, their teeth, eyes and skin looks almost real, of course we do not know what a real dinosaur looks like, but we know it should look something along the lines Jurassic Park set. 

TE2775- Coming up with an Idea

As I am going to be filming my own footage and editing that to make it look like it is in a different world/have a different theme, I firstly jotted some notes down in my notebook, these are rough thoughts and I think from this, I have picked an idea that stands out the most to me.

Firstly, I thought about having a character travel in time from the present day (so now) to the future or past, this will show a distinct change as if the character went to the future, there would be alien like things I.e. space ships and flying cars and in the past, maybe see a historic event happen, like the world war. However, I do not really have a strong interest to get myself into this idea. 

The second idea was a character dreaming, the filming will be quite easy yet I can get some really good shots, however, I am still trying to work out how to transition from a character dreaming and it going into his dreams. To create a distinct world, I can create distortion in the narrative, the character could be dreaming of scary events, alien life, they could be looking back in time in their dream, so there are many possibilities I could choose from and I can make it really creative by using the effects I learnt in class using the 'Adobe After Effects' programme. 

It looks like I will be using the second idea as I quite like the idea of having a character sleeping and dreaming and then the audience being able to look into his dreams, there are many techniques in Adobe After Effects that I can use, I can add in some really cool stuff to create a distinct change in the world he is in and it also means that the audience is getting a glimpse/experiencing his mind. 

TE2775- Assignment Brief

For the second assignment, the task is to:

• Produce a short narrative sequence of about 3 – 4 minutes that contains two distinct sections.
• One should be in one time or era, the other should be in a distinctly different other time or era.
• Cut repeatedly back and forth between the sections through the use of audio and colour adjustment, you must ensure that each section has a distinct ‘feel’.
• Demonstrate your skills in post-production as covered in class. On the whole you should use your own footage.

What I am required to do in this assignment: 

• You must produce a written table, based on research, detailing the differences in the two types of time that you are trying to create (1 page).
•  You should also produce a document detailing your actual production process, including relevant screenshots (1-2 pages).
•  You should finally write an analysis of what you have learned in this whole module and what you will take forward into future projects (1 page).

 I have decided to use blogger to demonstrate my progress in this project and to show how I have done each segment in the piece. This is where I will document research, propose new ideas and screen shot bits of my work to show the process of it and what tools in 'After Effects' I have used since learning about them in classes.