Location Recce

Bed used to show our victim sleeping

Stairs in which our killer walks up

In this location 'recce' we're showing where we filmed in our group members, Jouvan, house.
Whilst it may seem as if we haven't taken very many pictures this is because of the fact that we didn't film in very many places within the house. We used his bedroom for the main story and the stairs for a walking scene - hence the fact there is only 2 pictures.

Testing outro: Credits

An important part of any film or trailer is the credits. These give people recognition for any effort they've put into a film and also lets the audience know what production groups were part of the making stage of the film and who the film was written by etc. This made it clear to us that our production team will need to add credits to the end of our film so are audience knows who was involved in the making of it and gives the people, involved, credit where it's due. Below is the picture of what our credits will look like, once it's at the end of our trailer.

Testing intro: Alternatives

Just so our introduction isn't one dimensional, Harry also tried out a different possible introduction to see how that would turn out instead. Below is the result:

Testing intro: Green screen used

As with every trailer there has to be an intro to it.
So as a test, group member Harry decided to try out a video possibly for the start of our teaser trailer.
Please note that this is only a 'test' right now and is not defiantly going to be our final introduction to our trailer.

Green screen

From the majority of teaser trailers you see there is usual a 'green screen' at the very beginning of the clip like the one below.

This screen is done to quickly, at a glance, tell the audience/viewers who can view the movie and who has in fact rated the movie at the certificate it has been given.

Our group all decided we would like to use this 'green screen' to give our teaser trailer more of a 'real' feel. But upon looking into this we soon gathered some restrictions in us using this 'green screen'. One of these restrictions is the fact that copy right stops use from using it as we're using someone elses work and do not have the right to use it.

Because of this we all rallied together and decided that to get around this problem we would instead make a 'green screen' ourselves.

There were a variety of steps involved in the making of this but it took no longer than 20 minutes to make and so wasn't time consuming.

First step: Choosing the right tone of green
To make the screen like authentic our group member Harry tried out a variety of 'greens' to use as the background colour. I decided this tone of green was the best I could get and so the colour we choose was #007c00 on Photoshop.

Second step: The following preview
The next step was to begin writing text upon the green screen. As a separate layer, named 'text', I began to write "the following preview has been approved for" and used totally white colouring.

Third step: All Audiences
Next part of the text was to write "All Audiences" this was done to let the audience know who the film is intended for. Notice how this part is done in totally bold - so it stands out and people can quickly gather information quickly.

Fourth step: Slasher Inc
Giving a twist on the usual text of 'by the motion picture association of America, Inc' I decided to put the exact same writing, except to change the 'America, Inc' part too 'Slasher Inc'. This helps to promote our own Media production team and gain it a wider spread attention from movie-goers.

Fifth step: Websites
This step is done to put two web links up, where people can voice any problems they have with the certificate of the film. Again I changed the www.mpaa.org to www.slasherinc.com to further promote our production team - so our movies can be viewed by an larger audience and our audience can voice any concerns they have.

Sixth step: Changing font
From viewing previous pictures you can see that the font I used looked nothing like the font used in the actually official green screen. So this is where I decided to go back and change the font from 'Helvetica Heavy' to plain out simple 'Arial'. Although this can be seen as too simplistic I feel as if it works better and gives it a more sophisticated look. Notice how I also changed 'PREVIEW' and 'ALL AUDIENCES' from bold to no bold but just made their specific font size bigger, to make it stand out more from the other text.

Seventh step: Testing out drop shadows
In the original green screen you see a black shadow on the back of the text. I sought to achieve this in my text and so to do this I simply added a drop shadow to any text, I wanted, and simply tweaked it to whatever looked best.

Eighth step: Adding more shadows
I liked the effect the shadow was giving off and so proceed to add shadows to more of my text

Ninth step: Adding more and more shadows!
As the above step I decided it were best to just add this effect to every bit of text upon the green screen and you can see I have done this by looking at my layers column.

Finished: The finished article

Movie title font

One we had come up with the title of 'A Beautiful Nightmare' for our movie we had to think of a way in making it iconic. As if with many movies they all have their own movie title and the majority of them have their own font used to make the movie stand out and make an audience realize right away that that font belongs to that particular movie.

Font 1:

Part 1 of Filming: Importance of getting lighting correct

From our video below you can see just how important it is too get lighting correct.
Because if you don't then you could film the most amazing shot, in the world, but no one will be able to see it unless lightnings done properly. This shot just emphasis' the importance upon lighting as our scene was now way too dark to even begin to see what we were filming.

Part 1 of Filming: Test shots

To get a rough idea on how we could plan out the ending of our teaser trailer, we decided to use Jouvan as a victim and see how effective it would be were he to be pulled pack randomly - without an antagonist in sight. Here are the results of those test shots

Test Shots from filming final scenes

When we got to Jouvan's house we all had an idea that the filming would run smoothly and we would be finished in an hour or two. However, this turned out to not be the case. Filming turned out to be much harder than we intended and because of this we spend, the majority, of the time actually discussing how we shall plan out our shots and in what ways we can make them effective and ultimately work.

The first video on this post was spent working out how we can get Jouvan in our shot, for our scene, but without him being seen. Such were the things we were discussing that it even led to one of our group members asking 'is this scary?'.

The next video is a continuation of our conversation from the original video and in this video we're discussing what we shall actually do when it comes to the actual shot and we're just basically testing out to see if it'll work.

Part 1 of Filming: Props

During our days filming we had to use a variety of props. This props used were;

Lights: Lights play a major part, in filming, as without them we would not be able to give enough lighting to even be able to see the shots being filmed. Because of this we used little, small handheld lights (as shown below by group member Elizabeth) that were powerful enough to make adequate amount of light but small enough for our crew to easily hold in our hands and use.

Elizabeth holding the light

Gloves: The glove plays an important role in the teaser trailer, but you'll have to watch the final release to find out why.

Elizabeth holding up the glove in question

Bed: This plays an important role in the whole entire story of our movie as this is where our victim is most likely to be situated during the whole sequence of events

The bed our victim Isabel will be in

Chair: Used for a killing scene

Part 1 of Filming

Our first part of our filming has taken place!
In this we got some very important scenes, from our trailer, done. Some of these scenes were the first part and last scene - meaning all we have to do now is film the middle part of our trailer and then finally bring it all together in the editing stage.

As part of our day together we also decided to take some pictures to show us setting up such things as lighting to take place in our movie and took some images of the equipment we're using today.

Harry testing our the handheld light

Jouvan and Adeola setting up the tripod stand

Once the stand was up, we had to adjust it accordingly to what we had to film

Harry testing out the position of the tripod

Adeola giving the 'thumbs-up' to show she is ready to film

Adeola waiting as the rest of the crew set-up the scene

Harry and Elizabeth showcasing the chair that will be used

Age Certificate Decision

From our previous post we realized that the best possible age that could be given to our teaser trailer would be 15. Reason for this being that their are no drugs, sex involved in our trailer but there is violence, which would not be viewable for a much young audience. This led to us deciding 15 would be the best age as it can then be aimed at our intended target audience and will not upset a younger audience - potentially leading to our film being banned if it's let out, for the viewing of 'minors'.

Age Certificates

Along with the coursework-side of Media, this year in our exam lesson we have learned about the importance of Regulation. One part of Regulation is the ways in which movies are regulated, in order to give a film a certain certificate so a certain age group and beyond can see it.

Here in the United Kingdom we have our own regulation service, to regulate movies released in the U.K. This regulator is called ‘BBFC’ – standing for the British Board of Film Classification. Set up in 1912, the BBFC is a British Independent Company. It is the BBFC’s duty and responsibility to classify and regulate movies, in order for them to be given an appropriate age certificate for public viewing. Factors that determine the age certificate a movie is given can be from the use of drugs and violence used in the film to the sexual content or the language the characters use. Amongst films, the BBFC also regulate Video games – in order for them to again be viewed by a certain age group in the public. BBFC are also an example of a ‘proactive’ regulator – as they regulate before something has been released, so it doesn’t cause harm or create a ‘hype’ or ‘buzz’ around it.

Some of the age certificates the BBFC issue;

At the very bottom of the list is ‘U’. U, in movie terms, stands for ‘Universal’. This means that the movie, in question, is appropriate for every member of society as there is no violence, treat or horror involved in the movie. This means U movies are suitable for everyone. Famous films, that have been given a U certificate, include: ‘The Smurfs’, ‘Cars’ etc.

Next up is ‘PG’. PG stands for ‘Parental Guidance’. This means that unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children. Famous films given a PG certificate include: ‘The Goonies’ ‘Nanny McPhee’ etc.

12 and 12A are Exactly the same criteria are used to classify each other. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them. The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult. The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work. 12A became apparent after the release of Spider-Man in 2002 and children, of the age of 12, wanted to see it but were denied access. Famous films given 12/12A certificate include: ‘Spider-Man’, ‘The Hulk’.

15 rated films involve lots of strong language, violence and bad behavior. Anyone under the age of 15 is not a lot to view these rate workers. Such things, as drugs are allowed to be shown, as long as it doesn’t promote or encourage drug misuse and strong threats and menace of horror are allowed as long as it isn’t sadistic or sexualized. Famous films given 15 rated certificate include: ‘The Hangover’, ‘The Inbetweeners’.

Last but not least this brings us onto 18. The highest age certificate given, in the United Kingdom. The BBFC clearly states that no one under the age of 18 is allowed to watch an 18-rated movie in the cinema. Reasons for this can be the fact that there are a lot of sexual scenes and/or heavy violence in most of the movies rated 18. Most people are asked to show proof of I.D. when going to watch a movie rated 18. Famous films given 18 rated certificate include: ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’.

Lighting

To even film our test shots we had to set up some equipment, in order to be able to film it correctly. This required the use of 'lighting' being set up. So here we have two group members, Elizabeth and Adeola setting up the stand, for the light to be placed upon.

Meeting - After filming practice shots

As our group still had time, left over, after we had filmed our practice shots we decided to have another quick meeting.

In this meeting we discussed what went well in our filming and what didn't go so well.
We soon gathered that it would be best if we had a female, as the victim, in our teaser trailer as having a male being tormented didn't particularly seem scary to us, in the group. This helped us decide that we shall have a woman, as the victim, in our trailer. We also realized that holding a camera still and framing a shot is no where near as easy as the professionals make it look - so we've decided to invest in some time being spend on learning the best ways to hold a shot before we go and film our film shot.

Pratise shots - with Adeola as victim

These shots, in this post, were more done with the intention of gathering the idea of how to film rather than what would make a scary movie trailer. This helped us suss out how long a shot would be effective for.

Shot 1:

Shot 2:

Shot 3:

Practise shots - with Jouvan as victim

To get a different perspective on who is better as a victim, in a horror movie, our group decided to try out Jouvan and Adeola as the potential victim for our teaser trailer. So in this blog posts we're showing you all the practice shots we filmed, using Jouvan as the victim.

Shot 1:

Shot 2:

Shot 3:

Getting ready to film our test shots

Elizabeth setting up a light stand

Harry and Jouvan working out how to put camera on the tripod

Harry and Jouvan again making sure the camera is on correctly and safely

Elizabeth getting ready to get the light out of its case

The stand: once it had finally been put up

The chair we'll film our test shots on 



These shots in this post are just to illustrate how our team has been working together to get all of our test shots done and too make sure all the equipment is up ready, quickly and safetly so as not to cause any harm to anyone.