Final Decisions - Setting & Lighting

The main setting for our production will be Tom's house, as the majority of the trailer is set in 'Ethan's' bedroom. We decided to use Tom's for the setting as he had enough room film in different angles without hassle. There will be a range of different shots that are going to be used and we will be using natural lighting for the scenes needed outside and interior lighting for the scenes in Tom's room. Also on Tom's street there a street lamps which will be good to use if we were to film at night, which is very likely.

We are also going to film in Sheldon Country Park as we need to film scenes where the killer is chasing victims and killing them. The scenes that are going to be shot there are going to be using natural lighting, but seeing at its a horror trailer we might need to film it in the dark because horror films are generally set in the dark, due to the fact that a lot of people are scared of the dark.

References

http://www.ehow.com/about_5367445_importance-lighting-film.html - accessed 23/01/12

Final Decisions - Sound

When the animatic for our production was being made, Tom decided on using a keyboard version of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town...' which is played slowly and was taken from a Youtube tutorial. Although we used this music for the animatic, if we were to use the same piece of music for our trailer we would have to think about copyright issues. It is a very good piece of music and would fit in very well with our trailer, but we feel that we could make an even better version of the original it, which will fit in even better with our final production, using GarageBand. If we were to use the same music as our animatic, we would have to think about contacting the person that made it, to see if we would be able to use their music.  
The music that we will use for our traile will have to be christmassy and be quite slow tempo, as we want the music to create suspense and mystery.

In terms of the music, it has to have a Christmas feel to it as well as being able to create suspense, tension and mystery.

UPDATE - We have decided to use copyright free music, from sites like Jamendo. We've also decided to use two different pieces of music because we couldn't find the right music that would have the soft feel to it as well as the fast tense edge to it.Below is a link to the Youtube tutorial of the original music we used in our animatic:

References
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u1o3lfh7Hk- accessed 19/01/12

Final Decisions - Costume

The image above is the main costume for our production, as it is what the main character of our production is going to be wearing. The costume is quite the opposite to what the character is because, Santa is known as a kind, gentle and caring person, whereas the person that's going to be wearing the Santa costume in our production is the killer, who is evil and has issues that effect him from his childhood and cause him to be what he is. The Santa suit can also be symbolisation in some way because it is red, and the colour red is usually associated with horror/gore because red is the colour of blood.
Our killers costume is quite similair to the costume in black xmas because at the beginning of the movie the killer swaps his clothes with someone dressed as Santa so he can escape.
The costume for the main character and others in our production is pretty much everyday, casual wear. In the trailer the main character Ethan is going to be wearing Pajamas as he is getting ready to go to bed.

References
http://www.dees-fancydress.co.uk/catalog/deluxe-flannel-santa-suit-p-6.html - accessed 18/01/12

Final Decisions - Logo

 The image above is the final copy of our trailer logo. The logo designing and creating was down to Tom, and as a group we looked at various images that he created and used different elements from each one a put them together to create the logo. I think he used Photoshop effectively as he was able to make effects that look like snow and the tree shows you that the film has a link to Christmas. And the blood on the actual title gives you hints that it may have something to do with murder.


Here are some other logo ideas made by Tom:

Below there is a link to Tom's blog, which has more information on each of the logo's that he designed, how he made them, what he used, why he decided to do certain things on each logo as they are all different and why we decided to use the log that we have:

References
http://tomsa2media.blogspot.com/2012/01/film-logo-creation.html

Final Decisions - Props

Here are the props we will need for our production. There are elements of both horror and Christmas, and both fit in well as the colour red is associated with Christmas as well as the colour of blood, which is usually associated with horror/gore.
Juxtaposition is created as Christmas portrays happiness and family, whereas the knife and blood show fear and death. They are both opposite sand putting them together makes something quite different and unique.
Due to the fact that most of our production is filmed in a house, we will not need any other props, apart from the normal things that you'd get in the house.

References
http://www.irunoninsulin.com/?attachment_id=3182 -  accessed 16/01/12
http://www.androidcentral.com/scrabble-getting-wordy-android-next-week  - accessed 16/01/12
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-1221576-knife-and-blood.php - accessed 16/01/12

Animatic Final Draft

Because we had to re-do our storyboard it meant that the animatic had to be done again. So Tom volunteered to make a very simple animatic for our trailer. Hopefully it makes more sense to everyone and you can get a basic idea of what our trailer will be like from this.

Weekly Update

We have completed the location scouting and have uploaded pictures and explained why we chose those locations and what effects they will create to help our production.
As well as that we have redone our storyboard this week, which means that a new animatic will have to be made to.
After the animatic has been made and uploaded onto the blogs we will have to discuss any final decisions and then go on to make the production schedule. Once this has been done we should be able to start filming our trailer.

Storyboard Final Draft

Here are images of our storyboard, where you can see what is going to happen in our trailer, the type of shots we want to include and what type of angles we are planning on using.

This is the second draft for our storyboard, as the first one didn't quite make sense to some members of the group. There were also more scenes added in which really should have been there in the first place.

After a full discussion with the whole group, we decided on what was needed in the storyboard and are now happy with what we have included in it. We will move on to making the animatic now. 

Location Scouting (by Levinia)

Here is the entrance to a local park in Yardley. Seeing as the audience research task, told us that the majority of the target audience would like to see a forest/wood as the main setting. The actual gate of the park looks quite old and worn out, which adds effect to them, as they look quite creepy and fit in with the horror genre. The trees around the entrance also add to the feel, as it makes it look a lot more darker then it would have without the trees surrounding it, which is a good element especially if filmed at night.





This shot shows an area of the park which is covered by a lot of old trees, which would be a good place to film in, as the killer could hide behind a tree and watch it's 'prey' or it could be used in a chase scene.

In this shot of the park, you can see a path which is covered by a big tree, which is a good effect, as it makes the path dark, and could be used to film a victim running from the killer. And in the far corner again, you can see some trees, which could be a great place to film, the victim running into and hiding from the killer, especially at night.

Levinia has explained in more detail on why she decided that this would be a suitable place for us to film our production:

References:

http://a2mediastudieslevinia.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post.html - accessed 12/01/12

Weekly Update

So far as you can see, the results for the interviews and questionnaires have been completed and uploaded onto our blogs. I have picked out the main points of the questionnaire findings and analysed them, and some finalisations need to be made between the questionnaire and interview results.
Things left to do...

• We need to re-do the storyboard as Tom and Dean feel that it doesn't make sense, which means that we will have to have that drawn and made into an animatic before we can start to film our production.
• We also need to do some location scouting, as we need to find a suitable forest/wood of some sort, as that's the kind of location the target audience would like our production to be set in.
• The script needs to be written as well, which shouldn't take too long, once we've had a group discussion and decided on what to put in it.
• Finally a production schedule needs to be made, and then hopefully we will be able to start filming!