Friday, 1 April 2011

Equipment

We have gone three times for filming so far, and plan to go once more. The first time we went filming was in Matt's house were we filmed the very first scene's. With the new equipment and trying to work around our idea's in his house seemed to be a bit of a challenge at first but we overcame this. We also made a lot of mistakes which we learnt from, including not using a tripod for close shots in which we needed it for and continuity problems. We then went for a second time a week later. We re-shooted scenes such as the waking up part and added a few new shots which we thought would improve the whole of the movie intro. After doing a rough edit of all of them together including the shoots we did at Salford for the deserted city look we have decided a lot of the start needs improving and more of a clue of a zombie apocalypse happening. When filming at Salford, it proved hard to try and film shots without other people in it. We did the same scenes but in all different angles, some close up and long shots. We got kicked off the MediaCity area of Salford were we were filming because it was private property. This through us off our timetable so we had to make do with what we already had. This mistake can be improved next time by asking for permission and getting in contact them, instead of assuming it was okay to film.We plan to go next week back to Matt's house to make sure we have everything we need, and then we can proceed to edit our final intro.

Planning of Zombie hand

After a disscusion, we have decided to go and film again at Matt's house to add in more clues to our zombie acolpyse theme as when we edited it all through we asked for a second opinion and they audience said it wasn't apparent what was going on. This will simply be a shot of Matts housemates hand as he's undergoing the transformation of a zombie. This should build up more tension and set the atmosphere to the film. We have done some research and found that these are the ingredients to use:
  • Cornflakes
  • White flour
  • Gravy
  • Some ketchup for a bit a gorey bloody look
When mixed together it and put on Matts hand it should make it appear to look decaying.

Friday, 25 March 2011

Shaun or the Dead & Memoirs of a Survivor

Costume: For Matt he will first be in his pajamas and socks when he first wakes up and makes his way to the bathroom and then he will proceed to put on his shirt and tie on and a smart black coat ready for work. This enables the audience to relate to the protagonist more as the majority of 19 to 30 year olds go to work and earn a living. As well as basing our characters costumes on Shaun of from Shaun of the Dead the characters are also alike in their personality.
Characters and similarities:
For instance Shaun is a 29-year-old with not much of a life ambition and only really has a concern for his dead beat flat mate. He's in a dead end job which he doesn't really enjoy and this is reflected in our film as its apparent that Matt isn't the happiest of people when getting ready to venture out. As we have reflected all of this in the intro to our film this is also shown in some ways in the plot. For exampleat the start of Shaun of the dead it starts with The Winchester, a traditional London pub and as the plot begins to develop it appears that Shaun also doesn't know that there is a zombie apocalypse which is similar to ours. As these two characters are very alike it is apparent that the flat mates are to. Edgar (Shauns flat mate) is a crude slob who sits on the couch all days and deals with marijuana. Matt also has a fat mate who appears to be alike. In our first shoot Matt asks his flatmate 'Good night last night?' in which he replies with a 'Hm' suggesting he is hungover.This adds to the effect of his flatmate being a zombie for the audience.

Location

Salford Queys
We first wanted to Manchester city center, and film Matt around there when it was empty. But since this seems to be impossible to do as there is always people there, we have decided to film instead in Salford Queys, where it seems to be much more empty and we could get better atmospheric shots. We filmed Matt walking around looking confused and then realizing there is n
o body about and getting a bit worried seeing as it's always so busy around that time of the morning. We feel we have done this quite well seeing as we had to keep waiting for people to pass. It is clear in our film that he is in urban surroundings and this is what we tried to reflect with 28 Days Later. We really wanted to make the ending more powerful by adding more shots of the location looking deserted and also more shots of Matt on his own but without realizing the place we were filming (Media City) was private property and we were told to stop filming which was a massive disappointed. We now know when next doing a filming task we will look into locations in more detail.

Filming

We edited the first start of the sequence to the best of our ability and it seemed to look professional but there were some continuity errors so we came to the conclusion it didn't really work out so we will re-shoot most of the shots in Matt Taylor's house. We tried to get all the shots more interesting for instance insted of just a long shot of Matt walking down the stairs we added a close up of his foot and a close up of his hand on the banister. From these mistake we learnt that we need to keep everything consistent and not make mistakes like him having slippers on and then him not and him having a dressing gown and then not. That would count as a continuity error and would lose us marks for the final film because it won't look professional. Right now we're just trying to get everything correct and then we're going to start the filming in Salford Queys. The more we're using the cameras and the more we're using final cut pro, the more it becomes easy.

Friday, 4 March 2011

'Memoirs of a Survivor' Storyboard

We'll try to stick to this as much as possible, and take it with us when we go filming. This is just to help us and get a basic basis of what we're doing. Changes might happen through out the whole of this project but it's good to just to have something to help you if you've forgot what you want to do.




















Wednesday, 2 March 2011

'Memoirs of a Survivor' Shotlist



  • Close up of alarm turning to 7:00 from 6:59.
  • Close up of Matt hand turning the alarm off.
  • Close up of the side of the bed, Matt then swings his legs around off the bed, puts his feet in slippers and walks past/over the camera.
  • Camera will switch to a medium shot of Matt's legs walking from the side will then switch to a long shot of Matt scratching his bum to add a comedic effect.
  • There then will be serveral close ups of the toilet handle bring pulled down, brushing his teeth then buttoning his shirt
  • Close up of the mirror door shutting, Matts face will appear in the mirror, sorting his tie out
  • Then there will be a medium shot from the top of the stairs as Matt begins to put his coat on
  • Long shot of Matt walking down the stairs, it will then switch to a close up of Matts feet as he comes down the stairs, and then a close up of Matts hand lingering on the banister
  • Close up of Matt's head around the door around will the door is opened slightly.
  • Over the shoulder shot of his flat mate lying on settee
  • Long/Medium shot closing the door from the hall way, opening front door
  • Long shot of Matt coming out of the door and walking down the garden path and past the camera.
  • Long shot of him walking down the road to head to work
  • Medium shot to pan shot with Matt looking around confused
  • Long shot of Matt walking towards the camera
  • Medium pan shot of Matt walking into shot and camera panning down show he is getting his phone from his pocket
  • Wide shot from the bottom on stone steps showing Matt on his phone emphasizing that he is alone
  • Close up of Matt on the phone switches to long shot of Noor
  • Several long shots of Matt running and ends with medium shot of Matt confused