Hey guys!! Welcome back to my blog! My spring break has been pretty awesome but I’m really upset that it’s slowly coming to an end. Yes I’m sad that it’ll be over soon but hey, the sooner it ends, the faster i’ll get to show you guys my final project!! My group and I have been working extremely hard to make this project exactly how we envisioned it and so far so good. Soooo, since we haven’t talked in a while, I have a lot of things to update you guys on.
First of all, my group and I worked on the first scene of the film. If you guys’ don’t remember my last few posts, I talked to you guys about how my group and I made the gravestones and the “Jones Estate” sign and the whole process. Finally, we put them to good use and started filming that scene. Not gonna lie, they turned out better than I expected!
The point of the sign is to use it as an establishing shot to show the audience where these gravestones are taking place.
Andddd second, we filmed the scene of the family being dead with the backwards symbol E on their foreheads. We used fake blood to draw the backwards symbol and we used a tarp to cover them from the neck to their feet so that the viewers could see the symbol. We filmed this scene inside a garage and turned all the lights off. At the same time, we used a police light strobe effect that we found off of You Tube near their faces to show that this is a crime scene and that the police arrived to the scene.
That's it for today and hope you enjoyed!! Guys, It’s turning out really good and I’m so excited for you to see the final project!! Remember to stay tuned and see you soon!
I’m back guys, and I’m finally excited to announce that we finished the gravestones! It took a lot of work for one of our group members but it’s worth it all. This is a very important prop in our opening because it establishes the “cemetery” that is in the backyard of the family ranch. Not only that, but it also brings the viewers in by making it look realistic. That’s why this is a very important prop because it can either make or break our film. Here are a few pictures of them:
We tried making them look as realistic as possible and we added all the characters names, year of birth, and year of death on there. Also, the sticks seen on the bottom are so that we can stick the headstones into the ground. These are the people part of the family and the viewers will tell that it is on the same property because the gravestones will all say “Jones” on them and the sign at the beginning will say “Jones Estate”.
Another thing that I started looking into was the music that will be playing over the cemetery seen. We wanted to create a sense of thrill, mystery, and suspense so I did some research and I found 3 songs that I seem to like. They include:
1- On the Nature of daylight by Mac Richter
2- Too Crazy (from Royalty Free Music)
3- Trouble is Brewing (from Royalty Free Music)
All these songs have a suspenseful vibe to them and will make a great touch to our cemetery scene. Tomorrow we will be filming the actual scene and I’ll be testing all these songs out to see which one looks the best with the scene. So stay tuned for the upcoming blog where I’ll be showing you guys what it looks like and the group and I will make a choice based on those recordings.
The pilot episode from Vampire Diaries does a very good job generating suspense through the music and sounds used and we will try making our film like this as well. We hope to accomplish the same type of feeling by incorporating music and sounds used in the cemetery scene of the opening. This will help the viewers prepare for the thrills that will occur throughout the movie. Here is the clip of the opening:
While researching I also found this very well done slideshow that helped explain the type of music to use. If you guys want to check it out click here.
Stay tuned for my next blog guys, it's hard work for now on and I'm happy to bring you guys along with us!
Sources:
“Royalty Free Music.” FesliyanStudios Background Music And SFX,
I'm back guys, and today I decided to work on the first part of the film opening, which is when the production group pops up. Through one of the group meetings, I learned that there is a website called Animakerand it is perfect for this because of the animations that we can add. This morning I woke up and tried it out and so far I came up with our production company name and how we want to include.
Here is a view of how it turned out:
As you guys can see it's a simple animation because we don't want it to take a lot of time from the video. Also, this isn't the main focus of the opening so we don't want to distract the viewers, it's only purpose is to show how we made the video. We used a font that inflicts a feeling of terror as well because it looks like dripping blood in a way. Not only that, but we also made the background black to resemble the genre that the production company (us) focuses on, which is thrillers. To make it more interesting we also added the wipe animation which quickly puts the text in and takes it out in a matter of 5 seconds which is amazing and doesn't take time from the opening.
We chose the name JGAP Productions because we got inspired by other big time production companies such as, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures. They both have very simple, two word production companies and we thought it would be a good idea to do the same. JGAP stands for the first letters of each of our names, for example:
J- Juan G- Giuliano A- Alexis P- Parker
In this part we got inspired by Warner Brothers because they used there last names as the production company. Since they were all siblings and had the same last names (Warner) they went with that. We really liked this idea because it gives us the feeling that we did it and shows how it is our production.
Well guys that all for today, stay tuned for my next blog because I'll be showing the finished gravestones! Also, on Monday we start filming as well and I'm so excited, I hope you guys are too.
Today I got up bright and early to start working on the film opening. Today, I was working on one of the main sounds that will be heard during the middle of the film opening. This sound is extremely important because it helps establish an odd tone. What we are trying to convey through this sound is a "psychopathic" state of the character.
Here is the sound playing (keep in mind that the sound will be going to the rhythm of the clock being shown):
As you can see pairing this with the clock will show how the character narrows his attention down to small things and gets stuck on them. In this scene, he won't even notice that his mom came in the room, all his focus is on tapping the pencil to the speed of the clock. We came up with this idea because of an article I found (click here to view the whole source) that said,
"We are able to alter our activity or modulate our responses, depending on relevant peripheral information that appears after the task has begun. Psychopaths are specifically deficient in this ability" This is exactly what the character, which we are trying to establish as a psychopath, is doing. So much that he doesn't even recognize his mom entered the room.
Not only this, but in the same article it also explains how they have a "very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of discharge of aggression, including violence". To We will also be including this in our scene by making him get frustrated and irritated at his mom when she makes him stop the pencil. Then, he will become violent by smashing the door on the way out of the room. That's it for today guys, I hope you can see why all these little elements are important to the film because if they are done incorrectly they might send the wrong message out, and this is why a lot of research was put into this section of the film. I'll see you guys later!
Sources: 9 Clues That You May Be Dealing With a Psychopath. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mindmelding/201706/9-clues-you-may-be-dealing-psychopath
I am so excited guys, It's finally spring break! This doesn't mean time to relax though, we'll be working on our project everyday and I'll keep you guys updated on everything. As you guys know, we are going to be filming constantly throughout spring break and our goal is to finish the film opening. This will give us enough time to complete our CCR, which is highly important, in fact, in tomorrow's blog I'll be talking about some of the questions I've answered to the CCR.
Today, the group and I went to Home Depot to find the necessary supplies to build the sign that will be used in the first part of the opening. Since we want the sign to look realistic we bought 2 wooden pillars, a wooden plank to go across the top, two smaller planks, and a sign that will say "Jones Estate". Here is an example of of how it will look with all the materials we bought:
We have to put a lot of emphasis into this prop because not only does it establish that the "cemetery" is located in the house (which makes it a family graveyard), but it is also the first shot of the opening. Therefore, this is supposed to make viewers keep watching and is why we want it to be realistic.
Ultimately, our goal is to come out with a sign that looks almost like this one:
As you can see from the picture, it will establish the location, the name of the family, and that it is a ranch.
That's all for today guys, I know this was a short one, but the main purpose was to show how we are going with the props. Another person in the group has also started making the headstones as well, but I'll show the pictures when they're done. Stay tuned on my next posts because here is where all this handwork starts coming together.
I'm back guys, and I have to say this week has been a very busy one for me, But I was still constantly planing and thinking about our project. Today, I'll be talking about our shooting schedule because we had to make revisions based on the amount of time we had.
Here is the new updated shooting schedule (I split it into three parts because we split our opening into three major areas):
- March 18 - 22 (One of these days or maybe two will be used to shoot, not sure about the specific date yet)
Markham Park
Shooting the whole first part of scene (headstones)
We will also go to a house near Windmill Ranches and ask if we can film for our establishing shots
- March 23 - 24
In the room of someones house (possibly Parker's)
We will shoot the whole second part during this day
- March 25
Any extra shooting we need
This will serve to replace any of the shots
The rest of the time will be used for editing and completing the CCR
As you guys can see we changed some things from the last one. Know that we know exactly what the story consists of we know the scenes we have to film, so we split it up according to the lengths of the scenes. Not only that, but we also planned to have one day meant for re shooting just in case we decide to change any of the shots. As you guys can also see, there is a section in red. We added this because we're not sure what days we'll be able to film during those days and therefore, that section is just a range of the days we will choose from.
I was looking online and I found this quote on shooting schedules:
"A shooting schedule is an exact timeline of how much time will be needed to complete the shoot and on which dates you are going to shoot.... Scheduling will help you to shoot the scenes in accordance to the location and make the production a hassle free process."
This shows the importance that they have because not only so we have to take into consideration everyone's lives and commitments, but we also have to plan exact so that when the shooting takes place it's quick and easy. This is why we have put so much time into the planing and shooting of the scenes. For more info on the article click here.
Sources: Verma, S., & Verma, S. (2018, February 05). 10 THINGS WILL DESCRIBE WHY PRE-PRODUCTION IS IMPORTANT IN FILMMAKING. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@saurabhkverma/10-things-will-describe-why-pre-production-is-important-in-filmmaking-a815d0ac1832
Welcome back guys!! Today we will be talking about the Title. I wanted this topic to be one of the last posts but I just can’t hold it in any longer!! Just to make myself clear, this story is about a psychopath (about our age) who kills his family, and the opening scene is the ending to the film. Know I know what you’re thinking, we basically just gave the ending away.. But it’s not about how the movie ends, it’s about everything that leads up to the ending and all those important parts of the film that portray this psychotic character. After the title shows (which is towards the end of the beginning/middle), we will rewind to a few months earlier and tell the story from there. Get it?
Here is a quote that my group and I will try to accomplish in order for this film to be exactly how we vision it:
“As you transition to the next section of your story the audience should be able to identify the protagonist, what the story is about, the antagonist (villain- not always a person, but represents the opposing threat), and what’s at stake if the protagonist doesn’t succeed at their goal.”
Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… drumroll please…. IDΣNTITY
Now, before you all get confused, let me explain why my group and I chose this title and how it came to be. The main character of this story isn’t at all normal, he is a psychopath who wants to harm his family and we wanted the title to represent that this kid is not even close to representing normal. In one of my previous blogs some of the names that we got inspiration from was Prisoners, due to the fact that the “O” in prisoners is a symbol that has a lot of meaning to it so we wanted to make it similar.
One thing we knew for sure, was that we would use the Greek capital letter for Sigma, which is the letter E. One day in our AICE Media Studies class, we just thought of names that had the letter E in them so that we could use the Greek letter. Keep in mind, the Sigma E is backwards so it would be facing the other way, not the way it’s facing now. Now why is the greek letter so important? It all goes back to what I said before, the normal letter e is known as “E”, if the audience was to see this letter e “Σ”, they would know that it relates to the film and how it’s not “normal.”
Coming up with this name was a huge deal for us since the title has to represent the story. We are so glad that we’re making progress and keeping you guys happy! Can’t wait to share more with you guys.
Stay tuned for tomorrow!!
Sources: Screenwriting Structure: Expanding the Beginning, Middle, and End. (2017, January 24). Retrieved from https://www.zacuto.com/screenwriting-structure-jill-remensnyder Sigma. (2019, March 08). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=prisoners&rlz=1C1NHXL_enUS815US815&oq=prisoners&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1435j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
